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Moldy Cheese Might Make You Live Longer, And So Might Getting Over Your Jealousy Of The French

The latest dispatches from Science tell us that one of the secrets to the French people’s ability to ingest massive amounts of red wine and profiteroles may also be their love of blue-veined cheeses like Roquefort. For the cheese lovers among us, this should be met with great celebration and as carte blanch to pick up some moldy cheese along with your brie and pinot noir at the store tonight. Go for it!

From the study:

“…the anti-inflammatory factors found in these cheeses could be extracted and used independently as a part of today’s pharmaceutical or beauty products.” There’s also the increasingly popular idea that inflammation within the body is the cause of “many aging processes,” like muscle loss, cellulite, and “metabolic, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular diseases,” which anti-inflammatory ingredients work to fight against.

So there you have it — apparently Roquefort is one of the ingredients in the smoking + drinking + fabulous hair + scarves equation that is the French. But may we suggest a bit less obsessive fixation on the “French Paradox” might also be good for everyone else’s health? We’ve been on their collective jock since at least 2000, and I don’t see anybody’s lifespan getting longer for it (in fact, aren’t we always taught that anxiety is bad for our health?). Moreover, it seems almost willfully obtuse to have a conversation about the French lifespan without also having a conversation about the widespread availability of free medical care there, which probably makes people a whole lot more amenable to going to the doctor. However. We can’t be mad at any study that tells us that eating more cheese is a good thing.

[Via The Frisky]

TAGS: french lifespans | moldy cheese

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