Drinking a glass of red wine everyday can help keep the doctor away longer than you think
Do you think that red wine could help save your life, or to be a little more calm about that, deliver healthy benefits? It’s something that we’ve all seen in and around the media for the past little while, and increasingly more research is suggesting it’s actually quite healthy to drink wine in moderation, often even better than not drinking it period. Wow, that’s interesting news to hear isn’t it?
For thousands and thousands of years, people have been drinking wines and came to learn about their various healthy properties, and benefits that it has to offer. Wine was a very popular beverage in the ancient Greek and Romans book and was even prescribed by the leading physicians of the day to help cure gastric and digestive ailments. It’s curious to note that during that time many reviews about wines were not about their taste, but rather about the medicinal benefits they carried.
The long rooted tradition of people seeing wines as being healthy nearly disappeared in the late 1800’s with the prevalence of prohibition and peoples thoughts towards alcohol. The medicinal benefits of the beverage shortly were overshadowed by potential harm from abuse. Of course this eventually went away, and now we’re back to responsibly enjoying red wine.
Fast forward to approximately 20 years ago when the hugely popular “French Paradox” became a sensation in the world media. This helped bring the benefits of red wine to the center stage again with some science behind it. Because the French eat rich diets with high cholesterol they should have been suffering from higher rates of cardiovascular disease. Instead the scientists noted that they were indeed not suffering from increased disease rates, and per capita had remarkably lower rates than the rest of the world.
The scientists had a tough time finding a link and then came the idea about red wine being the missing link to their superb health and long life. Red wine contains something called resveratrol, which is a plant hormone that can help protect humans against cancers, cardiovascular diseases and others. The researchers put one and one together and had their answer as to why the French were living so long, while eating all the “wrong foods” as it were.
In Canada there has even been a recent discussion by respected doctors like Dr. Richard Beliveau, who is a director of the Charles-Bruneau Cancerology Centre at Montreal’s St. Justine Hospital. Beliveau is an avid speaker on the topic of red wine, and resveratrol and the benefits to people. His argument is that red wine is better for you than white wine is, and with that even moderate red wine consumption (2 to 4 120mL for men, or 1 or 2 for women) will drastically lower the risk of dying from various cancers and other diseases.
Why specific about red wine? It’s because it contains the highest concentration of resveratrol than anything else. It’s also interesting to note that wines made from grapes that hail from cooler areas of the world tend to contain more resveratrol than grapes grown in warmer climates. With some wines from France, Ontario, and other cooler regions of the planet available for sale for less than 15$ it’s an easy choice to living your life longer.