{"id":873,"date":"2009-09-24T22:15:31","date_gmt":"2009-09-25T04:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/?p=873"},"modified":"2009-09-24T22:21:41","modified_gmt":"2009-09-25T04:21:41","slug":"the-french-paradox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fathead-movie.com\/index.php\/2009\/09\/24\/the-french-paradox\/","title":{"rendered":"The French Paradox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Earlier this week, I posted links to several old margarine commercials, including a Blue Bonnet ad in which French chefs declared “no difference” when comparing the taste of industrial vegetable\u00a0goo to real butter.\u00a0 This demonstration made such an impression on the French, they immediately continued their habit of putting real butter in pretty much everything.<\/p>\n

Compared to Americans, the French consume four times as much butter, three times as much pork and 60% more cheese.\u00a0 Their overall consumption of saturated animal fat is double ours. Since the experts have told us over and over that saturated fat will clog your arteries, the heart-attack rate in France must be higher than the Eiffel Tower, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wrong.<\/p>\n

The heart-disease rate in France is about one-third the rate in the United States and United Kingdom, in spite of the fact that the rate of smoking in France is also 10% higher. Since everyone knows<\/em> saturated fat causes heart disease, the experts refer to this as the French Paradox — and for years, they’ve been falling all over themselves to explain it away.<\/p>\n

First they blamed the paradox on all that red wine.\u00a0 Yes, that must be it … animal fat will kill you, but red wine protects you!\u00a0 Just one little problem: people consume even more red wine in countries like Hungary and the Czech Republic, where the heart-attack rate is three or four times higher.<\/p>\n

So the experts\u00a0tried blaming the French Paradox on vegetables.\u00a0 Animal fats will kill you, but not if you eat eggplants and peppers!\u00a0 But again, there’s a problem: it doesn’t hold true around the world.\u00a0 The heart-attack rate in the vegetarian region of India, for example, is nearly twice as high as in the region where most people eat meat.\u00a0 No meat, lots of vegetables, but lots of heart attacks too … how embarrassing.<\/p>\n

With wine and vegetables unable to excuse the paradox, the\u00a0experts next assigned magical powers to garlic.\u00a0 Perhaps cholesterol was originally spread to humans by vampires and is therefore repelled by garlic.\u00a0 That theory looked promising until clinical trials concluded that garlic merely tastes good … assuming it’s properly roasted or saut\u00e9ed.<\/p>\n

Clearly, there must be some untested but uniquely French trait or behavior that protects arteries from the well-known clogging effects of saturated fat.\u00a0 So in the interest of both science and personal health (I do, after all, eat a lot of saturated fat), I’ve decided to try making myself a bit more French … or at least more French-like.\u00a0 Here are some ideas I’m considering testing to see if they protect my heart:<\/p>\n

Adopting more cultured table manners.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through a bit of online research, I discovered that table manners in France are similar to the American version, but with a few significant differences.\u00a0 To be more French-like, I will:<\/p>\n