The Medical Benefits Of Red Wine
Wine for medicinal purposes? It used to be a funny excuse of alcoholics, but scientific study seems to confirm the practice – in moderation. Consuming a single five-ounce serving of red wine a day seems to replicate the beneficial aspects of caloric restriction without any of the potential unwanted effects such as muscle loss and decrease in bone density.
Very little has been conclusively proven yet – because long-term studies require, well, a long period of time to complete – but all signs so far have been positive. Unlike the case of smoking, which doctors in the 1920s in fact recommended for good health (!), the everyday drinking of red wine in moderation does indeed seem to provide health benefits.
Be aware that we’re talking about red wines in particular, not regular, and not barley wines or other kinds of fruit wines. Nor do we necessarily mean other kinds of alcohol, regardless of whether made from grains or vegetables – only red wines.
The main reason for this is that resveratrol, the key chemical providing all these benefits (there are others, of course; a little on them later), comes from grape skin and is discovered most abundantly in red wines. Specifically, resveratrol is made by grape skin when infected by fungus, such as that which happens during fermentation through the exposure to yeast.
White wines, in contrast, are made with minimal contact of that sort during their production process and for this reason are not the best source of resveratrols; not surprisingly, all other kinds of alcohol contain no grapes at all, though all alcohol, in moderate, minute amounts, are now believed to provide some benefits to the heart.
So grab a small glass of “red, red wine” and kick back to the UB40 song of the same name and sip slowly, enjoying your daily dose of resveratrol, polyphenols, antioxidants, and flavonoids!