RED WINE HEALTH BENEFITS

Red Wine Health Benefits



Red Wine Health Benefits

Introduction

Red Wine is an alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast which consumes the sugars found in the grapes and convert them into alcohol. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can be fermented without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients.

Studies on red Wine

The health effects of red Wine, was and still is, under the subject of considerable ongoing studies. In America, a boom in red Wine consumption was initiated in the 1990's by “60 Minutes”. The French Paradox refers to the lower incidence of coronary heart diseases in France as compared to in America despite higher levels of saturated fat in the traditional French diet (www.beekmanwine.com). Epidemiologists suspect that this difference is attributed to the high consumption of red Wine by the French. Many studies have also shown many other health benefits from red Wine consumption. There are, however negative effects from red Wine consumption. There has been an ongoing debate concerning the encouragement of red Wine consumption to the society. Thus, the aim of this investigation is to determine whether red Wine consumption should or should not be encouraged to the society for better health. It will begin by first examining the reasons as to why red Wine consumption should be encouraged and then the drawbacks of red Wine consumption (Issuree et al, 2009).

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Reasons to encourage red Wine consumption

Recently, many studies show that moderate red Wine consumption is actually good for the body as it is known to prevent many common diseases in people. The benefits of red Wine consumption include reducing various types of diseases, stimulating nerve cell regeneration, and acts as a remedy for stress (Kovacs et al, 2002).

Red Wine reduces cardiovascular diseases

First of all, moderate red Wine consumption is cardioprotective and reduces the risk of heart diseases. This is due to the fact that the alcohol and flavanoids present in red Wine increases the sub-fractions of HDL (good) cholesterol which have been found to be protective against cardiovascular heart diseases and at the same time, prevents the oxidation of LDL (bad) cholesterol which facilitates platelet formation and the buildup of fat in the arteries which in turn causes atherosclerosis. Despite eating a vascular disease-predisposing cholesterol rich diet, have significantly less coronary heart diseases than other similarly indulgent countries. The reason for this, due largely to France's high consumption of red Wine. The Copenhagen City Heart Study in 1995 tracked more than 13,000 people over 12 years and found those who drank 2-3 glasses of red Wine a day had half the risk of dying from coronary heart disease or stroke as those who never drank (www.advance-health.com).

Red Wine prevents type 2-diabetes

Moving on, moderate red Wine consumption is also known to reduce the risk of developing type 2-diabetes. Moderate drinking actually reduces insulin resistance which occurs when the body gradually stops responding to the sugar hoarding effect of the hormone insulin and is thought to precede ...