Benefits
of Wine
Research has shown that moderate wine
drinking reduces the risk of heart disease by increasing
the level of "good" HDL cholesterol in the blood. HDL
cholesterol carries away surplus cholesterol to the liver
for disposal. At the same time, wine prevents the "bad"
LDL cholesterol from oxidizing, which would cause plaque
to cling to the walls of arteries and could lead to heart
attacks. Wine also relaxes the muscles in the arteries
so they do not contract and cause high blood pressure
and restricted blood flow. And wine makes blood platelets
more slippery, reducing the risk of clotting.
During the last five years, there have been
dramatic advances in research focusing on the specific
components of wine. Scientists believe that more than
200 of wine's chemical compounds contribute to positive
health benefits in the form of antioxidants, which are
the agents that inhibit the oxidizing of cholesterol in
the blood. Oxidation triggers the aging process that turns
butter rancid, makes steel rust and, in our bodies, causes
arteries to clog. Some of the more potent antioxidants
in wine are phenolic compounds such as flavonoids, tannins
and eicosanoides. The flavonoids in red wine are ten to
twenty times more powerful than those found in vegetables
and twenty times more powerful than those found in white
wine.
But it is the antioxidant resveratrol that
has attracted the most attention. Grapes produce resveratrol
in their skin as protection against fungus. Since red
wine grapes are fermented with the skins on, the wine
they produce has the highest concentration of resveratrol
and therefore the greatest benefit compared to both white
wine and other types of alcohol. Less hardy grape varieties
growing in cool climates such as pinot noir appear to
have more resveratrol than the hardier varietals such
as cabernet sauvignon since they need to protect themselves
from the damp fungus-inducing weather. Nevertheless, all
red wines seem to provide benefits.
"No one is advocating getting blitzed every
night," says Irvin Wolkoff, a Toronto psychiatrist and
the wine columnist for the newspaper The Medical Post.
"Conservative estimates are one 5 oz [175 mL] glass per
day for women and one to two glasses for men -- although
these will probably go up over time as more research is
made available. You also can't save up for a week and
drink it all Saturday night. The full benefit is derived
by drinking moderately every day."
The term "moderation"
also depends on the size of the drinker. For example,
both smaller people and women have lower alcohol tolerance
thresholds. Richard Garlick, communications associate
for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA), agrees
that moderation is critical, but says drinking alcohol
is not without risk. Do the components of wine, the way
wine is consumed or the lifestyles of wine drinkers result
in longer, healthier lives? Although it is hard to isolate
these factors, they do seem to have a combined beneficial
effect. For example, drinking wine with dinner stimulates
favourable biochemical interactions that can reduce the
risk of certain chronic diseases. Consuming wine with
dinner also assures that the protective effects of the
alcohol are strongest in the evening, when fats from dinner
circulate through the bloodstream, carrying over to the
next morning when most heart attacks take place. Beyond
heart, head and stomach, some researchers believe that
wine has other wide-reaching impacts on health: "We conclude
that a moderate intake of alcohol, mostly in the form
of wine, seems to protect individuals from premature death,
not only coronary heart disease and cardiovascular diseases
in general, but also from other causes," reports Serge
Renaud, a French researcher who found that those who drank
two to three glasses of wine daily had a thirty percent
reduction in premature death from all causes. United States
health economists have estimated that if every adult American
drank two glasses of wine each day, cardiovascular disease,
which accounts for almost fifty percent of deaths in this
population, would be cut by forty percent and $40 billion
could be saved annually.
New dietary guidelines in the
United States go so far as to recommend that if you drink
alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation, with meals,
and when consumption does not put you or others at risk.
This may encourage more doctors to discuss the benefits
of drinking wine with their patients. While wine is not
medicine, it is comforting to know that not only can you
enjoy it, you may live a longer, healthier life drinking
it. |
