Delhi Wine Club organized a Conference in collaboration with VinExpo at the French Embassy Auditorium, New Delhi on 7 th May, 2003. The Subject of this mini-conference, 'The French Paradox' Myth or Reality- 12 Years and After, was to highlight the latest international findings of various Studies in the wine and health area. The speakers included the French Ambassador, H.E. Dominique Girard , Mr. Sourish Bhattacharya , Editor of HT City and the Associate Editor of the Hindustan Times, Mr. Subhash Arora , the President of the Delhi Wine Club and Dr. Harbans S.Wasir , Padma Bhushan, Cardiologist and Medical Director of Batra Hospital. Mr. Lakhmi Jatav, heading the Promosalons , the agency promoting VinExpo in this region was at hand to talk about VinExpo 2003 where a similar Seminar will be held during the Exhibition from 22-26 June this year.

the Harvard Diet for good health which includes no smoking, low-fat diet, regular exercise, whole grains and green vegetables and a glass of wine regularly.

Dr. Wasir was very convincing that during his practice and the analysis of various studies that included the latest Study of 39000 men in UK had enough evidence suggesting an intake of 10-15 gms of any alcohol everyday. However, his personal preference was for wine and he wished younger people take to drinking it instead of hard liquor. He quoted from the Vedas where it has been quoted that wine is medicinal and can increase the sexual potency if taken in limited quantity. He, however, cautioned against excessive drinking since 15% people who drink wine regularly can start drinking heavily and turn alcoholics. He also suggested one glass for women and two for

The Ambassador in his opening Address quoted Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, who said that wine if wonderful for health. He also talked about the Vedic scripture, Charak Samhita which encourages wine drinking for sexual prowess and health. Of course, wine may have been implied to be any form of alcohol since a fine differentiation was not made between the two those days.

Mr. Sourish Bhattacharya spoke on the general myths of wine linked with health and wondered why  wineshould be preferred to tea that also had tannins and thus was anti-oxidant. Also, he was skeptical about the studies and cautioned taking their results too seriously since on many occasions these studies may be biased and may not be directly relevant.

Mr. Subhash Arora talked about the various Studies and their results.. His conclusions were that wine taken in moderation had proven to be beneficial for heart, blood pressure, cancer and dementia. But the women had to be slightly careful because of the risk it increases of the breast cancer.He cautioned against starting drinking wine or alcohol purely for health reasons though and advised the intake of younger and more tannic red wines if health was of prime importance.He enumerated several studies which have proven beyond doubt about the beneficial also suggested adopting

men, 4-5 times a week. He cautioned pregnant women against taking any alcohol. He also stressed that other healthy habits like no smoking, fat-free food, eating fruits and vegetables, exercise, yoga and meditation to release stress were equally important.

Mr. Lakhmi Jatav took the audience to a virtual visit to the bi-annual VinExpo which has charted some very exquisite events this year including the Seminar on The French Paradox to be addressed by international experts. Judging by the full house of over 120 registrants and the presence of an assortment of 3 TV crews and over 10 journalists indicated strongly that the French Paradox may not be as much of a reality but wine as a lifestyle drink is inching ahead steadily. Whether it was the lure of quaffable French wine, cheese and saucissons arranged by the co-sponsors, Indo-French Trade Association will not be known. But surely the evening had fired the interest in wine of several people just as had the French Paradox when it was coined way back in November 1991.

The conference was the first initiative of the Delhi Wine Club under the 'Wine and Education' programme that has been started this year to disseminate wine information to the people at large. The major success of this Event is sure to spur us to organize more such programmes regularly.