Ahhhh, you’ve got to love the French paradox. France is notorious for fattening, artery-clogging food, yet has some of the lowest cancer and heart attack rates in the world, primarily due to a substance named resveratrol, naturally found in pomegranates, grapes, and incidentally, red wine.

Just a few months back, a group of scientists at the University of Wisconsin discovered that by adding small amounts of resveratrol to the diet of mice, the creatures’ aging process would slow and their hearts would remain healthy, even when constantly exposed to high-fat food.

So with this in mind, another group of researchers from the Houston-based Rice University decided that creating a cancer and heart-disease-fighting beer would be a great idea. Boy, as far as I’m concerned, this is the idea of the century. Unfortunately for beer lovers, who may have seen this as an opportunity to indulge in regular drunken stupors, only half a glass of the stuff each day will be needed to get the substance’s beneficial effects.

Let’s just hope that when it comes out, which–if it happens–should be in about five years, “resveratrol beer” will taste better than all those light beers out there. Knock on wood.

[Via Tristan Péloquin [French]]