This is a reprint from the Williamson County Sun Newspaper From the Vineyards
By Bill Loëb
I have often proclaimed that if I were in charge, chocolate would be a health food, pork ribs would help your vascular well-being and we would all have to avoid beets. Eating cauliflower might even mean a hospital stay. As much fun as it would be to proclaim all of our favorite foods "healthy" you might not realize there is something that is not only delicious but an indulgence that is good for you.
What is it you ask? Wine.
Doctors in America have been slow to concede what has been common knowledge in Europe for decades. Wine is good for you. Study after study has made a correlation between daily wine consumption and good health. While red wine is better, white is good too.
Although this fact is accepted today, it wasn't always the case.
The "60 Minutes" segment called the "French Paradox" caused quite a stir in 1991. It seemed that a researcher named Serge Renaud claimed it was wine that saved the French from heart disease. The French diet is extremely high in animal fats, but wine counteracts many of the dire effects.
Renaud found that folks that drank wine three or four days a week had a 30 percent less chance of heart attack than the once a week or less wine drinker:.
Mr. Renaud is not alone in his assertion that wine is healthy. There are dozens of major studies that have come to the same conclusion. It is undeniable that wine benefits health."
Doctors everywhere are prescribing wine to their patients. The possible benefits are enormous. HDL, the good cholesterol, is increased. In addition to assisting circulation and reducing many types of heart disease; there is solid evidence to suggest that your risk of cancer is reduced.
Your chance of developing dementia or Alzheimer's is reduced. Mortality is reduced, In fact one study says that wine might extend your life by three to four years.
If you decide to study wine's benefits, you will be bombarded with research containing scientific terminology such as polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins, antioxidants, anthocyanin and ethanol as well as other beneficial stuff. Don't be put off by the technical jargon. Some researchers will tell you that one or two glasses a day is the right level, others will suggest four. But there is one thing that they all agree on. Wine is good for you.
So go find that corkscrew. You have another excuse to pop that cork,
You will be rewarded with health benefits as well as delighting your taste buds.
Bill Loeb is a wine expert and has been in the wine business since 1980.
He has published articles, taught classes and cohosted a talk radio show and several television appearances.
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