Way back in the 70s or it might even have been the 60s, the French Wine Industry insisted that red wine was really good for you. I took this to heart, forget the butter is bad for you and all the other tranny-unsaturated fats nonsense they came out with later. In fact there were so many scares about various types of food that I basically ignored all of their warnings unless it made sense and most of their recommendations didn’t. Drinking red wine seemed like the way to go as far as I was concerned and as the years went on my consumption gradually increased until it was far too high but seriously enjoyable. More recently I have had to reduce it but not to the point of abstention, the old waistline has been expanding and with a dodgy knee I need to lose some weight. I can only surmise that alcohol likes my belly and clings to it.
A couple of years ago I had to give the GP a blood test,I can’t remember why, but eventually I was called back to see the doctor, amazingly it really was a doctor as opposed to a Physician Associate. The results were that I was a bit deficient in Vitamin D, hardly surprising because I do not go out in the sun much for fear of appearing like a dinghy diver, but my LDL cholesterol (that’s the bad one) was 1.9 where they recommend that less than 3.0 is good (no idea what units they are). As an example, my son-in-law has had stents and is obsessed with his cholesterol levels, I think he is just over 3 on the old LDL count. Hence I was not asked to go on statins and would have refused had they done so. My attitude these days is that if anything comes for me at the age of 75 I am going to go gracefully; the thought of suffering on chemo and worse does not appeal to me and nor does lifelong medication (except the red wine of course).
It has occurred to me that I could contact the representatives of the French Wine Industry and report that I am sure that following their advice all those years ago has stood me in good stead and would they, for a minor pecuniary advantage, like to use me as a poster boy. Man oh man, I could sing their praises to the heavens for a few bob. I suspect fellow puffin Upset could do much the same.
I have no proof whatsoever that red wine has made any difference to my cholesterol levels but I am sure as hell prepared to be evangelical about it especially if a quid or two is involved. As far as medicines go, I have avoided them as much as possible, just antibiotics a few times in my life and the usual jabs we had back in the day. I sing the praises of red wine and heartily recommend avoiding the other crap the doctor wants to put in you.
As a point of order I suspect that white wine, however enjoyable it can be, does not have the same medicinal advantages that the red one has. I wonder if anyone has similar theories connected to the consumption of perhaps whisky.
© well_chuffed 2026
