Stuff the fat in, wash harm away with booze

Although it’s a bit more nuanced than this, we’re delighted to hear that guzzling red wine like a Frenchman will undo all sorts of damage from a high-fat diet. That’s all the excuse we need.

Despite the penchant for pâté, cheese, butter and baguettes, the French have always maintained high standards of health compared with many of their less boozy, less cheesy Euro-buddies. It’s known as the ‘French paradox’ and it’s been pissing puzzled scientists off so much they’ve gone on a mission to crack the code.

And basically the riddle is solved thus: Red wine cures everything!

More realistically, it seems red wine can help curtail the negative effects of a high-fat diet. Not only that, a red wine-based drug could help fight cancer and stem the tide of aging. This is due to a substance called ‘resveratrol’, found in plonk.

So should we all be reaching for the bottle and giving our lives over to the red stuff? Sadly, no. A glass or two a day is all you need.

The study, published today in PLoS ONE, looked at the effect red wine had on the health of middle-aged mice. Researchers found that even low doses had an influence on the genetic levers of ageing, and could help protect the heart from damage.

Drinking red wine also made the mice look more sauve. (Last bit untrue).

Source: Telegraph