The following is taken directly from an article from Yale-New Haven Hospital "For over 10 years, research has indicated that moderate intake of alcohol improves cardiovascular health. In fact, in 1992 Harvard researchers included moderate alcohol consumption as one of the "eight proven ways to reduce coronary heart disease risk." However, research has suggested that specifically red wine is the most beneficial to your heart health. The cardioprotective effect has been attributed to antioxidants present in the skin and seeds of red grapes". The antioxidants they are talking about are called flavonoids. Flavoroids have been shown to reduce your bad cholesterol. Oxidized low-density lipoproteins (LDL) damage the cells that line blood vessel walls by provoking numerous responses including inflammation, smooth muscle cell proliferation and clotting mechanisms, all of which lead to atherosclerosis, can you say heart disease? One the other hand antioxidants which are in red wine raise your good cholesterol. They also have been shown to reduce blood clotting. The research has actually shown that MODERATE red wine consumption may actually benefit more than just your heart. According to the Mayo Clinic, "moderate" is defined as up to one drink a day for women or two drinks a day for men. There is some evidence that the antioxidants might also inhibit the development of tumors such as Prostate cancer and help in the development of nerve cells which touches on helping cure Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The antioxidant in red wine is called Polyphenols The particular antioxidant we are looking at here is Resveratrol which comes from red grape skins, red wine. Most of the research that has been done on Resveratrol has been done on animals but so far (although there has been some done on Humans) it is promising and the hope is that the good news plays out in humans as well. According to WebMd, Dr. Alice Lichtenstein & Dr. Eric Rimm, a Harvard researcher choose whichever alcoholic beverage you enjoy, drink it in moderation and try to have it with meals, advises Lichtenstein and Eric Rimm, DrS, a Harvard researcher. There was a study done and published in The New England Journal of Medicine of more that 20,000 women between the ages of 70-83 shows that moderate drinkers scored higher on a mental functions test than those that don't drink and had a 23% reduced risk of mental decline compared to the non-drinkers. Another Polyphenol in red wine is called Proanthocyanidin also a class of Flavonids which is another powerful antioxidant. Proanthocyanidins in one study kills free radicals (can you say aging). In an in vitro experiment testing the response of human mouth cells to the free radical damage caused by smokeless tobacco, grape seed OPCs were a stronger antioxidant than vitamins C and E, even when the two vitamins were combined. How do you determine your wine has all the above? Drink a full-bodied red wine aged in oak because it appears that they have the highest antioxidant properties.
There are, of course some issues with Alcohol in general, HOWEVER after doing my research into the subject, the negatives of MODERATE drinking do not seem to apply to normal,active, healthy people. Wine does however contain Alcohol and has sugar which means calories. According to the website http://winefolly.com/tutorial/wine-nutrition-facts/ "Alcohol has almost 2 times the amount of carbs as sugar". That is NOT a good thing and whether healthy or not too much sugar is not healthy and should be avoided. Whether you drink red or white though wine does matter even when it comes to sugar because some white wines contain more sugar than do red wines. Pregnant women should avoid drinking wine or any other alcohol during their pregnancy, as even small amounts of alcohol consumed during pregnancy increases risks of birth defects and fetal death. If exposed to alcohol, unborn babies may suffer a number of negative side effects, which will influence their physical and mental health: odd facial features, smaller size in comparison to other children of their age, learning and behavior problems etc. Also according to Arthur Agatston, MD, cardiologist and creator of the popular South Beach diet "There is a misperception that red wine is abundant in antioxidants. "It does contain some, but they are not always well absorbed. If you want antioxidants, you are better off eating a spinach salad with vegetables than drinking a glass of red wine"
In ending this article it is my (non-medical) belief that a normal, who drinks a couple (MODERATELY) of glasses of red wine red wine should enjoy the benefits to their health. The fact that red wine contains sugar I believe is overshadowed by the many benefits in the wine. Here is my disclaimer. I am not a doctor and am not giving medical advice in this article.
The Desert Wine Guy
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