Smoking cigarette, consuming lots of saturated fatty acids with lots of fruits, vegetables and red wine can lower the incidence of heart disease? so how much of that is true/untrue?
Dear Aly,
The French paradox is the observation of low coronary heart disease (CHD) death rates despite high intake of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1768013/
But, in general, the French are not fat. It is the over consumption of refined carbohydrate which in addition to calories is pro inflammatory. That combination leads to the plaque.
French paradox term was used in 1980 from epidemiological observation that though french people eat high saturated fat containing diet, they have lower incidence of coronary artery disease. Apparently high saturated fat containing diet are risk factor forCAD. Many hypothesis exists to explain it. First one resveratol and polyphenols present in red wine might have some protective role. Though controversy exists that the amount of resveratol present may not be sufficient to explain this benefit. Another explanation French diet are rich in short chain fatty acids and poor in trans fat compared to American diet and it may not be so detrimental for health. Lesser obesity, genetic factors and positive emotional effect of French diet may be other contributors for this paradox. Lastly Malcom Law and Nicolas Wald published a study in BMJ 1999regarding French paradox that it may be actually a statistical elusion.
There is no French paradox. The idea that fat caused coronary heart disease was promoted by drawing a graph with six countries, and ignoring the other 16 from which statistics were available. That would be unacceptable in a schoolchild's work.
Using all the data from all those countries shows a very high correlation between lactose consumption and coronary heart disease death. Lactose breaks down into glucose and galactose. Galactose attaches to protein, which then becomes oxidised, and dumped in the artery wall. Antioxidants in vegetables and red wine protect glycated proteins from oxidation. If you draw a graph of CHD death rates against milk minus 1.5 times wine consumption, it is almost a straight line. France fits on that line.
If the data you have disproves your hypothesis, it is dishonest to call it a paradox. You should just abandon your hypothesis.
Yes, trans fats are an issue. So is smoking. So is fructose consumption. Also lack of exercise, lack of magnesium, lack of omega three fatty acids, lack of vitamins B, C, D, E and K2. Also the membrane round fat globules in milk causes platelet aggregation.
Eat hard cheese for your calcium, but don't drink milk. Hard cheese is almost lactose free, and fermentation produces vitamin K2, which removes calcium from arteries and puts it in the bone.
The reason HDL is useful is because the paraoxonase in it prevents oxidation of LDL. LDL is only a problem when oxidised.
But how and why French Paradox distributed in that way ? also lactose is something new for me?
You might like to read "The Glycation Hypothesis of Atherosclerosis", ed. Camilo A.L.S. Colaco, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, Texas, 1997. Also
1. Moss M, Freed DLJ. Survival Trends, Coronary Event Rates, and the MONICA Project (letter). Lancet 1999; 354 (9181): 862..
2. Moss M. Does Milk Cause Coronary Heart Disease? J Nutr Env Med 2002; 12(3): 207-16.
3. Moss M, Freed D. The Cow and the Coronary: Epidemiology, Biochemistry and Immunology. Int J Cardiol 2003; 87: 203-216.
Dear Margaret,
Thank you for the references provided.
Best regards
Aly
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