By Susan Heckler
Do you like wine? Me too!! A glass to mellow out with after a long day… a touch of sweetness with your family and friends… something to celebrate with! As it turns out, wine likes you too!
Let’s start this conversation by saying too much of anything can be destructive to your health. Just because it has health benefits doesn’t mean you can abuse it. The American Heart Association labels moderate wine consumption as 1 or 2 four ounce glasses of wine per day.
That being said, throughout history wine has had a reputation as being some kind of health restorative. The ancient writings say it was used in a medicinal way. Our modern science and medicine have concluded that moderate consumption, especially red wine, can provide many health benefits.
• Red wine drinkers had significantly increased their levels of good HDL cholesterol and had a more beneficial cholesterol ratio compared to the group that drank water.
- People who drank either red or white wine also reported better sleep quality than the group that drank water.
- Best results came from the group drinking red wine—which had resveratrol levels 13-fold higher than the white wine.
- Red wine also contains a lot of unique antioxidants called polyphenols that are hard to get other places and may help protect the lining of blood vessels in your heart. One of them, resveratrol, reduces the levels of LDL cholesterol that can lead to damage to blood vessels.
- The high antioxidants in red wine come from grape tannin, which is made up of the skins, seeds and stems of the grape. A more full-bodied wine such as a cabernet sauvignon will have more antioxidants than a glass of chardonnay.
- Moderate drinkers have 30 percent less risk than nondrinkers of developing type 2 diabetes
- The possibility of suffering a blood clot–related stroke drops by about 50 percent in people whoconsume moderate amounts of alcohol.
- Moderate drinkers are 32 percent less likely to get cataracts than nondrinkers; those who consume wine are 43 percent less likely to develop cataracts than those drinking mainly beer.
- Moderate consumption of wine (especially red) cuts the risk of colon cancer by 45 percent.
- Brain function declines at a markedly faster rate in nondrinkers than in moderate drinkers.