French Paradox?

We have all heard of this: the alleged good health in a group of people that typically eat a diet high in fats and carbohydrates. But recent studies have shown that the phenomenon should be more correctly labeled the Mediterranean paradox.
The research is known as the seven-country study, and started out to find out why people on the isles of Crete and Sardinia were living longer and with little heart disease despite a high fat diet. What was discovered was that a major part of their diet included the drinking of red wine.
A closer examination of the red wines produced in this area found that they were richer in Procyanidins than many other similar wines from other areas. This same traits were discovered in the wines of southwest France, where the population enjoys overall good health. So the paradox has little to do with France itself, as heart disease and other diet related illnesses have proved to be regional. In fact Alsace, where the majority of the wines are white, has the highest rate of heart trouble in the country.
Procyanidins are part of the larger chemical group known as polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants. If you are a red wine drinker you will also recognize another polyphenols -- tannin—that dryish, astringent taste omnipresent in these wines. Now white wines have these same compositions, but while red wines are the fermented juice of the grapes with skin and seed intact, white wine is the juice only. So the longer the time of the fermentation with the seeds, the more extraction of these polyphenols that you have, and thus higher levels of polyphenols.
So my recommendation is to sit back with your favorite Bordeaux (proyanidins), a creamy rougefort cheese (penicillin) and a loaf of French bread (yeast) for a most delicious medicine cabinet!