Red Wine

Red wine doesn’t hold the same stigma as other forms of alcohol. While governments worry about alcohol-related diseases, there are countless studies showing that red wine could actually have health benefits. The ‘French Paradox’ was officially recognized in 1992 after researchers found that despite eating a diet high in saturated fats, French people had a 40% lower mortality rate from heart disease. Could their consumption of red wine have a protective effect? The benefits don’t seem to stop there and studies have found that drinking red wine could prevent cancer, reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and could maybe even help treat asthma, arthritis and gum disease.

Recently, researchers have found that moderate red wine consumption may be beneficial to more than just your heart. One study found that the antioxidant resveratrol, which is prevalent in the skin of red grapes, may inhibit tumor development in some cancers. Another study indicated that resveratrol aided in the formation of nerve cells, which experts believe may be helpful in the treatment of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Resveratrol is found in the skin of red grapes and as a constituent of red wine may explain why the incidence of coronary heart disease is relatively low in southern France despite high dietary intake of saturated fats. The investigators found that polyphenols — compounds in grape skins and present in red wine — decrease the production of a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict and reduces the flow of oxygen to the heart. The protein, endothelin-1, is believed to play a key role in the development of heart disease.

All of the media hype about red wine being healthy has been focused on the health effects of certain individual chemicals that can be found in red wine. Just because these chemicals can be found in red wine by no means makes red wine a healthy drink, and the American Heart Association makes this clear. Even though red wine contains antioxidants and anti-aging compounds, they do not recommend that you drink it because the costs appear to strongly outweigh the benefits.

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