You
pop open the cork after a killer day at the office, and the luscious
wine flows in mellow drops into your shiny glass. Then this voice
whispers in your ear. “Should I be drinking wine?” You try to make
healthy food choices and go to the gym and yoga a few times a week. Are
you negating your efforts with a few sips? You know that over-indulging
is a health no-no, but what about a glass of wine a few times per week?
Unless
you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely heard of the
heart-healthy benefits of red wine. But this is not your big concern;
you already exercise and eat pretty well.
Prepare to be amazed.
More than just being heart-healthy, wine has a slew of surprising health
benefits, many of which stem from resveratrol. Some plants make
resveratrol to fight off bacteria and fungi, or to withstand a drought
or lack of nutrients. Red and purple grapes, blueberries, cranberries,
mulberries, peanuts, and pistachios are sources. Resveratrol may be the
wonder ingredient
responsible for many of wine’s benefits. Isolating the resveratrol does
not yield the same powers, indicating that a constellation of forces
act together to protect the body. Most studies focus on the benefits of
red wine because white grapes do not contain resveratrol.
Prepare
to be amazed and relieved. You’re about to learhow your wine-drinking
ritual can be a powerful health elixir. Check out the following fourteen
benefits of wine that go way beyond heart healthiness.
1. Live longer
That’s
right. On the island of Ikarios, a recently discovered Blue Zone,
people live longer than anywhere else in the world. Daily wine
consumption is part of a
dietary pattern that encourages long life
through eating fewer animal-based foods and eating more plant-based
foods. You’ll find the long-lived residents of Crete and Sardinia
sipping dark red wine, a part of their anti-aging lifestyle. A 2007
study suggests procyanidins, compounds found in red wine tannins, help
promote cardiovascular health. Wines produced in areas of southwest
France and Sardinia, where people tend to live longer, have particularly
high concentrations of the compound.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School uncovered
evidence
that resveratrol directly activates a protein that promotes health and
longevity in animal models. Resveratrol increases the activity of
sirtuins (longevity pathways), a group of genes that protects the body
from diseases of aging.
2. Get smarter
Resveratrol may help improve short-term memory. After just 30 minutes of testing,
researchers found
that participants taking resveratrol had a significant increase in
retention of words and showed faster performance in the portion of the
brain associated with the formation of new memories, learning, and
emotions.
3. Banish breakouts with wine
Resveratrol is able to
inhibit the growth of acne-causing bacteria
longer than benzoyl peroxide. And it works even better when combined
with benzoyl peroxide. So far, drinking the antioxidant is the best way
to benefit from its properties. Topical application in creams has not
been proven as effective – so imbibe your antioxidants in wine, fruits,
and veggies rather than buying expensive creams.
4. Wine may beat trips to the gym
Would you rather drink wine or slave away at the gym?
Scientists
at the University of Alberta in Canada found that resveratrol improves
heart, brain, and bone function; the same way these parts are improved
when you go to the gym. Now imagine the benefits of doing both!
5. Say goodbye to the blues
You know wine helps you relax…but depression?
Researchers in Spain
found that men and women who drank two to seven glasses of wine per
week were less likely to be diagnosed with depression. Even when taking
into account lifestyle factors which could influence their findings, the
reduced risk held strong.
6. Reduce (not increase) your risk of liver disease
This study challenged
conventional thinking about alcohol and liver disease. Modest wine
consumption, defined as one glass a day, may decrease the prevalence of
Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Modest wine drinkers, as
compared to teetotalers, cut their risk of NAFLD in half. And compared
with wine drinkers, modest beer or liquor drinkers had four times the
odds of having suspected NAFLD.
7. Promote healthy eyes
Resveratrol stops out-of-control blood vessel growth in the eyes, according to
Washington University School of Medicine
in St. Louis. This may help with treatment of diabetic retinopathy and
age-related macular degeneration. Note that these studies were done in
mice, so the dose for humans is not yet clear. But this is a great
start.
8. Protect your pearly whites
Did you know that
drinking wine is a little-known way to protect your teeth from bacteria?
We mentioned wine’s antimicrobial effects on the skin. Well, it also
helps
reduce bacteria on our teeth.Using
five of the common oral plaque-causing bacteria, scientists noted
almost complete degradation of the bacteria after applying the biofilms
with red wine.
9. Cut multiple cancer risks
Breast Cancer
Red
grapes are the fruit best able to suppress the activity of aromatase,
the enzyme used by breast tumors to produce their own estrogen – this is
called an aromatase inhibitor. Red wine may serve as a nutritional
aromatase inhibitor, which may ameliorate the elevated breast cancer
risk associated with alcohol intake. Note that you can also eat red
grapes; those with seeds are especially helpful. Resveratrol is also
thought to kill cancer cells by cutting off a pathway that feeds cancer
cells.
Colon cancer
Studies show that moderate consumption of red wine can reduce the risk of colon cancer by 50%.
Prostate Cancer
Harvard Men’s Health Watch
reports that men who drink an average of four to seven glasses of red
wine per week have a 52% less chance of being diagnosed with prostate
cancer compared to those who don’t drink wine. Red wine appears
particularly protective against advanced or aggressive cancers. Doctors
speculate that flavonoids and resveratrol contain potent antioxidants
and may counterbalance androgens, the male hormones that stimulate the
prostate.
10. Stave off those pesky sniffles
So maybe
grandma’s cold remedy isn’t so strange after all. A study looked at
4,000 faculty members at five universities across Spain. Those who drank
wine were less likely to come down with a cold compared to those that
drank beer or spirits.
Researchers think that the antioxidants help lower inflammation and reduce the symptoms of colds.
11. Lower your cholesterol (without changing your diet)
Resveratrol
is thought to reduce LDL and increase HDL, meaning that our blood
vessels are less likely to be coated with plaque. Even the American
Heart Association admits that moderate consumption of any type of
alcohol can increase your HDL, or good cholesterol, by about 12%.
12. Reduce the risk of stroke
Wine may
reduce your risk
of ischemic stroke. In analyses adjusted for age, sex, and smoking,
intake of wine on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis was associated with a
lower risk of stroke compared with no wine intake. The benefits were
not seen in beer or hard alcohol consumption.
13. Regulate blood sugar levels without drugs
Red
wine is abundant in polyphenols. The polyphenols in wine interact with
cells involved in the development and storage of fat and the regulation
of blood sugar. The amount of polyphenols in a small glass of red wine
appears to
rival the blood sugar regulating activity of certain diabetes drugs.
14. Slash your diabetes risk
Men and women who drink moderately have a
30% lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
This may be due again to resveratrol, which improves sensitivity to
insulin. Insulin resistance is the most important critical factor
contributing to Type 2 diabetes risk.
Don’t make this crucial mistake
The
monumental mistake people make is trying to buy these benefits in a
bottle, rather than looking at how wine can be a part of a healthy
lifestyle. We want to bottle it, sell it, and find that magic bullet.
Supplements
have not proven to have the benefits of simple foods. Nature is
complex, and we haven’t figured out how to put that in a bottle (and I
hope we don’t).
The most important thing you can do is start to look at the big picture.
Think of the slow-paced life of the Mediterranean and bring a little bit of that into your life.
Take time to prepare a simple meal packed with legumes and fresh vegetables.
Savor this meal.
Linger at the table with your friends and family.
And of course – enjoy a leisurely glass of wine without feeling guilty.
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