Health Benefits of Wine

In the past several decades, scientific studies have measured the health properties of wine. A 1940 study showed that wine contains the vitamins A, B and C, as well as 13 minerals essential to human life. In 1970, a professor at the University of Bordeaux hypothesised that wine could protect the cardiovascular system. His theory was confirmed in a 1982 study on rabbits. Shortly afterwards a worldwide study by the World Health Organisation showed that France had the lowest death rate from heart disease in the industrialised western world, despite the French habits of smoking, eating fatty foods and shunning exercise. Only the Japanese, with their low-fat diet of fish and rice, had a lower rate.

The first American journalist to speak of the French Paradox was Edward Dolnick, in a 1990 article for the magazine Health. In this article, French doctor Jacques Richard credited wine with protecting the French from heart disease. A year later, 20 million Americans watched a 60 Minutes broadcast on the same subject.

Findings on wine's health benefits have led to a renewed appetite around the world for this ancient drink. From 1949 to 1998, the number of wine-producing countries has jumped from 40 to 74 and production has risen by 85 percent. Today more people than ever drink wine for health and for pleasure.