Life can be tough, but every so often great news arrives. We heard some great news recently when we attended a presentation at New York’s French Culinary Institute. The presenter was Professor Roger Corder, who has authored, “The Red Wine Diet, Drink wine everyday and live a long and healthy life” (Penguin Group USA); a promising title.

The professor is a charming man who likes eating well and drinking good wine. He’s spent nearly a decade solving the mystery of the “French Paradox”: Why is it the French have a diet high in unhealthy fats, yet lower rates of heart disease than people with similar diets?

Here’s the great news: It’s because they drink two or three glasses of red wine everyday, protecting the body’s vascular system. And, as Sir William Osler put it in 1892, “A man is as old as his arteries.”

Not all red wines deliver equal benefits. Those who live in southwestern France, the Gers region specifically, reap the greatest benefits from daily imbibing. It seems the wines from Gers are particularly high in procyanidins, the component that Professor Corder’s research found to be the hero of vascular health. The presentation had more good news for us; procyanidins are also found in dark chocolate. His eating program features other procy-rich foods such as walnuts, berries, apples, and pomegranates.

We asked Professor Corder which wine-growing regions in America produced the best wines for protecting our health. He said that there are 3,000 registered winemakers in the U.S., and he hadn’t had time to visit them all. (We suggested he get on it.) He did say that wines grown in the State of Washington held great promise for a long and healthy life.

In the chapter of his book providing guidance for searchers of the heart healthiest wines he wrote, “Cabernet Sauvignon is the grape of choice for classic California reds, and it has given me the best results.” Pinto Noirs are also a very good choice. Among the wines he studied from the State of Washington he obtained the best results for heart health from a “Bordeaux-style blend from Matthews cellars: Red”.

The book offers many more selections of heart healthy wines from around the world and solid advice on judging any other wines you might come across. A sampling of Professor Corder’s recommendations convinced us that plenty of heart healthy wines have the richness and depth of flavor to please wine enthusiasts of all stripes.

Enjoying fine wine in moderation to preserve your health is pretty easy advice to take. You’ve probably guessed that binge drinking is out, but abstinence may be less healthy than two or three glasses of red wine a day. Professor Corder illustrated his findings with a quote from Paracelsus, the famed 16th-century physician who wrote, “Wine is a food, a medicine and a poison - it’s just a question of dose.”

The scientific research in the book is presented in clear language with enough humor to make it an entertaining read. We’ve made it part of our library, and expect to be referring to it for many years to come.

Professor Corder’s conclusion at the end of his presentation, “Drinking procy-rich wines in moderation and eating dark chocolate could help you live a longer healthier life.”

Some days the news just doesn’t get any better.

If you'd like to purchase Professor Corder’s groundbreaking book go to: The Red Wine Diet, Drink wine everyday and live a long and healthy life