Liver is not to blame...

Press, 22 July 1976, Page 17

Liver is not to blame...

Upset French gourmets will have to look elsewhere for the culprit of their so-called “crise de foie.” ROBIN SMYTH, of the London “Observer,” says French doctors have found that...

The French citizen who eats well — which is still a large slice of the French nation — no longer knows where to fix the blame for what happens five hours after many a good meal. In a verdict that confirms what British and American doctors have Tong scornfully maintained, French hepatologists have now admitted that the Frenchman’s liver upset — the crise de foie — has no medical validity. “The liver is not guilty.” announced Professor Daniel Dhumeaux, of the Henri-Mondor Hospital in Pans at a meeting to launch a French Association for the Study of the Liver. The assembled specialists did not go so far as to sav that millions of Frenchmen are imagining their liver symptoms.

But they did suggest that the 300 liver cures on the market were impostors whose curative properties had never been demonstrated. Some experts even suggest that the best cure for the so-called crise de foie is no cure at all — just to ride it out without resorting to any form of medication.

This is bad news for an immensely rich industry

that has grown up around the Frenchman’s certainty that his liver is his enemy and that he must fight back with medicines. And that if they don’t work, with courses of injections and a day under observation in hospital. The French pour close on £lO million’ a year into winning the battle of the crise de foie. The liver has become a national scapegoat and at the same time — rather as the weather is for the British — a classless subject of conversation that is guaranteed to produce instant sympathy.

So what is the crise de foie? The French specialists think that it may be a convenient blanket term for a number of ills that doctors cannot identify or think it would be a waste of time to try. These range from migraine headaches to a common bilious attack. There are diseases of the liver; they are grave and their symptoms m no way resemble the crise de foie. Conversation about the foie would quickly become boring if everyone had the same symptoms. But some sufferers feel something like an iron blind pressing against the back of their

eyeballs five hours after a heavy lunch or dinner, while others have vomiting and stomach cramps that may last only a few hours but can extend over a number of days. Cooked butter, which is one of the pillars of French cuisine, is -generally singled out by doctors as the main cause of the crise. But once one is hooked, a lack of freshness in food, an airless room, or even a sudden disappointment can bring on a new fit.

Looking in the back of my family medicine cupboard — for one can become a naturalised citizen of the crise de foie — I find a number of the cures French doctors prescribe which account for nearly five per cent of the drugs sold in the pharmacies. They are mainly based on herbs, such as boldo from Chile and rosemary, which is made into a cordial to be drunk hot first thing in the morning. When a crise threatens, all food and drink has to be thought of in terms of which side it is on. The artichoke is about the best food for the foie, hot butter is the worst: but fresh butter is neutral. Grilled

meat Is all right; ham, sausages, bacon, shellfish, broad beans, lentils, pepper, all spices and drinks with bubbles in them have to be avoided. I once knew a French children’s doctor who advised that his little charges should be given grapefruit juice in the mornings because orange juice is bad for the foie. For adults, red Bordeaux in small quantities is neutral. Burgundy is liverish. White wine is out, and Alsatian white wine is the worst of all. As for liqueurs such as Cognac and Armagnac, they bring the iron blind crashing down behind the eyes. In a pleasant exchange of compliments, British doctors sometimes prescribe Cognac to fortify their patients; French doctors say that the safest alcohol for the liver (if taken in moderation) is whisky. Each country has its own disease fads. Britain, which does not recognise the crise de foie, has numerous "remedies for biliousness. The United States refuses to admit the existence of either of these; the only American

remedy for a mild case of food poisoning appears to be a commercial cola drink served tepid. There has always been a kind of culinary pride attached to the French liver. ’’You can’t get a crise de foie from American food,” a Paris doctor once told me. “But what do you have in exchange? Indigestion, overweight and acne.”

It is humbling for the French to discover that the Anglo-Saxons are right after all and the folklore surrounding the foie has no scientific basis. Professor Dhumeaux says that a number of stubborn cases of foie can be relieved by forgetting to take the cures.

However, the majority of the medical profession may be hard to convince. Many a French doctor has an invincible belief in the crise de foie and those who know better are well aware that their patients expect them to prescribe something. Perhaps it is all in the imagination — but then, perhaps, hot essence of rosemary is good for the imagination. — OJ’.N.S, Copyright.