Interesting article about the French Paradox:
Excerpt:

"Nutritionally speaking, the French have been getting away with murder: They eat all the butter, cream, foie gras, pastry and cheese that their hearts desire, and yet their rates of obesity and heart disease are much lower than ours. ...It's maddening."


http://archive.salon.com/travel/food/feature/2000/02/04/paradox/

By Colette on Thursday, February 26, 2004 - 03:48 pm:

agreed, maddening.

By John on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 03:28 pm:

Here's another interesting article on the French Paradox called the "Fat Fallacy"

Excerpt
"...Clower and his wife, Dottie, also a neuroscientist, were invited to Lyon to do research at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences. In the United States, they had been religiously observing a lowfat diet. Unfortunately, they were not only bored with eating but were in constant combat with their weight. Also in the party was Clower's mother, Retha, who accompanied them to France. She had been frantically fighting a surge from size 12 to 14.

After living in France for a while and eating hot fresh bread with whole butter, whole-fat raw-milk cheese and every other food that -- it seemed -- they had avoided before, Clower lost 20 pounds, his wife shed 15, and his mother downsized to a 6..."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/entertainment/food/previous/s_174371.html