Health Benefits of Red Wine
It is still unclear what about red wine is heart healthy but recent research suggests it is linked to a substance called resveratrol, which is found in the skin and seeds of grapes used to make wine. Resveratrol isn’t the only substance in red wine that looks promising. The alcohol in red wine also appears to be heart healthy.
But what makes red wine different from white wine, beer or spirits? Researchers have found that red wine contains antioxidant compounds called polyphenols which are dissolved from the skins and seeds of grapes by the alcohol produced during fermentation. Since the skins of grapes are removed when making white wine, it doesn’t contain as many polyphenols as red varieties. A particular compound called resveratrol has been credited for heart disease and cancer prevention and typically white wines contain only 1–5% of the resveratrol present in red wines.
Red wine doesn’t hold the same stigma as other forms of alcohol. While governments worry about alcohol-related diseases, there are countless studies showing that red wine could actually have health benefits. The ‘French Paradox’ was officially recognized in 1992 after researchers found that despite eating a diet high in saturated fats, French people had a 40% lower mortality rate from heart disease. Could their consumption of red wine have a protective effect? The benefits don’t seem to stop there and studies have found that drinking red wine could prevent cancer, reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and could maybe even help treat asthma, arthritis and gum disease.
Research studies published in the International Journal of Cancer show that drinking a glass of red wine a day may cut a man’s risk of prostate cancer in half and that the protective effect appears to be strongest against the most aggressive forms of the disease. It was also seen that men who consumed four or more 4-ounce glasses of red wine per week have a 60 percent lower incidence of the more aggressive types of prostate cancer.
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