A Seismic Shift In French Paradox Research

The new effort by NIAAA and researchers from Yale and Harvard to raise $36 to $54 million for the first clinical trials of moderate alcohol consumption changes everything. (US Govt Asking Industry To Fund Most Of $50 Million Alcohol/Health Study)

For a long while after the CBS 60 Minutes broadcast on “The French Paradox,” the American wine industry owned the public consciousness about the health benefits of moderate consumption.

The Wine Institute even had a full-time staffer, Elizabeth Holmgren, following research. And other wineries groups even had AWARE (American Wine Alliance for Research and Education.”

But the wine industry has a short attention span. AWARE disintegrated more than a decade ago. Elizabeth Holmgren is gone from the Wine Institute and has not been replaced.

The awareness and bulk of scientific research has now established that “It’s the alcohol, stupid!” Wine, beer and spirits in moderation are pretty much the same. That was established in the 1990s by Kaiser researcher Dr. art Klatsky.

THE SEISMIC SHIFT

As I have noted numerous times in these posts over the past five years, the wine industry and the Wine Institute have fumbled this issue.

But distilled spirits seems to have recovered the ball. And removed it to a different game with different rules.

I don’t yet know what actions the full DISCUS board took at its meeting yesterday on the NIAAA/Yale-Harvard proposal. I do know it has a lot of support. The Wine Institute, for its part, never bothers to reply to my requests over the years for info on their own efforts (today’s article, included).

Significantly, the NIAAA/Yale-Harvard proposal draws people and scientists from far beyond those few friendly health investigators that the wine industry has come to rely on.

Without a seat at the NIAAA/Yale-Harvard the Wine Institute continues its lackadaisical lack of direction and loses any voice or influence it may have.

The wine industry’s slothful dithering and its pathetic excuses for doing nothing, resembles a song title from the rock band, Lit: “Same Shit. Different Drink.”

Spirits and beer look more likely to do something.