Enjoy the flavor of red wine? It turns out it’s good for you, too! So next time you have a glass, here’s some of the health benefits of wine you’ll be getting.
It’s about the Polyphenols.
Polyphenols are compounds that are found throughout nature. In fact, well over 8,000 different polyphenols have been identified in foods such as tea leaves, chocolate, vegetables, fruits (like grapes in red wine). In addition to giving fruits and vegetables color and taste, polyphenols are also antioxidants.
In these grapes are two powerful polyphenols, which each give wine a natural health benefit.
There has been a ton of research on the health benefits of wine, such as the 10 year Copenhagen study that followed 6,051 men and 7,234 women ages 30-70. In this study, it was found that – compared to non-drinkers – those who drank 3-5 glasses of wine per day had their chances of cardiovascular death decrease by almost 50%.
But those who drank 3-5 servings of spirits had their risk of cardio vascular death increase by 34%. Beer drinkers saw neither an increase or decrease in mortality.
These results indicate that there is something specific to wine that gives a health benefit over beer or spirits.
As we saw in the study, the subjects got the health benefits of wine with 3-5 glasses per day (that’s about a bottle a day). However, if you’re going to be drinking more than that, then there may be some good news.
Again, the data comes from France…actually from southern France. Red wine consumption is highest in the south of France in places like Toulouse. And even though red wine consumption is highest in this part of France, the rate of coronary artery disease is the lowest. Because more wine equals more polyphenols!
The studies didn’t zero in on white wine vs red wine health benefits. However, red wine contains about 6 times the polyphenols as compared to white wine. This is because the process to make red wine includes the grape skins, whereas making white wine usually only involves the juice of the grape (but no skin). And since the skin is where so much of the polyphenols hang out, it is natural for red wine to get more of the health benefits. A glass of red wine will contain about 200 mg of polyphenols, but there are only about 30 mg in a glass of white.
So next time you pour yourself a glass of wine, you can enjoy it for both the flavor and the health benefits. And on occasion if you’re inspired by the southern France lifestyle, you can benefit by enjoying a 3rd glass guilt-free. Cheers!
Session expired
Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.