14 Surprising Health Benefits Of Wine
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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