It was a Sunday evening in November 1991 when 33.7 million Americans turned on their TVs to watch 60 Minutes and saw Morley Safer report on an odd phenomenon in France. The French people, he said, ate high-fat, cholesterol laden foods — such as cheese, butter, eggs, organ meats — yet they had a much lower rate of heart disease than supposedly healthier-eating Americans. He went on, “Obviously, they're doing something right — something Americans are not doing. Now it's all but confirmed: Alcohol — in particular red wine — reduces the risk of heart disease.”

This phenomenon became known as the French Paradox and, within four weeks of the television show's broadcast, U.S. sales of red wine soared by 40 percent. The report prompted a change in thinking of wine as a toxin to wine as a potential healer, and it encouraged research projects to investigate how wine consumption affects the heart, lungs, brain, bones — and our overall health.

Does the French Paradox still stand up?

Wine vs. Beer and Spirits

While the research is ongoing, studies conducted around the world seem to confirm that wine and other alcoholic beverages — consumed in moderation — reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 20 to 40 percent.

With all the research analyzing the effects of wine, beer, and spirits on various parts of the body, the unique health benefits of wine in isolation from other alcoholic beverages are gradually coming to light. If nothing else, these unique benefits may be at least partially linked to way wine is consumed. Unlike consumers of beer and spirits:

• Wine enthusiasts tend to drink wine with meals rather than on empty stomachs.

• Wine drinkers tend to sip more slowly.

• Wine drinkers tend to spread their drinking out over an entire week rather than binge on weekends.

The upshot is that, for wine drinkers, the alcohol may be absorbed more slowly and over a longer period of time, and the resulting health effects might be different.