There are three qualities to make a great meal and food is only one of them.
A tasty dish goes without saying, but let's not forget the importance of good company and a pleasant wine. Some scientific research indicates that wine is not only a key to a good meal, but is also good for us.
Does this mean that the next time we sit down to eat with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, we are both improving our health and our well being?
The idea that wine is good for our health has been around for some time, but found scientific basis in the 1990s. It was on Sunday, 17 November 1991 that the French medical researcher from Bordeaux University, Serge Renaud, announced on the popular American TV news program, 60 Minutes, that his countrymen's fondness for drinking wine accounted for their low rate of deaths from heart disease. In the subsequent four weeks, wine sales in America shot up by 44%. Wine was now a health tonic.
The health benefits of wine are a little more complex than Dr. Renaud initially made out. Firstly, it's important to remember that alcohol can have some very serious adverse effects to health and society. When consumed in excess, wine, like any other alcoholic drink, can weaken the immune system, increase the risk of certain cancers, and damage the liver and brain. However, wine (specifically red wine) is believed to have beneficial properties.
Serge Renaud's original research pointed out that coronary heart disease is usually linked to a high intake of saturated fat in most countries. The situation seems to be reversed in France where deaths from heart disease are much lower than many similarly advanced countries, like the UK, despite the French eating plenty of cheese, pate' and pudding. Dr. Reynaud called this peculiar situation the 'French Paradox'. His original research indicated that alcohol worked on the the blood's haemostatic mechanism, so wine kept the blood circulating properly.
Since Renaud's landmark piece of research, there has been an enormous amount of research into the health benefits of wine. Sometimes it can feel like a new study is released every few weeks, alternately saying wine or alcohol is a life-giving panacea or a profoundly dangerous substance. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle - wine drunk in moderation can be part of a healthy diet. So we certainly don't have to feel guilty about picking up a delicious, fruity bottle of Merlot the next time we go to Marks and Spencer. But what is it about wine that contributes to its health giving properties?
The health benefits of wine are largely believed to be lying in antioxidants. Nowadays we all seem to be antioxidant mad. Their benefits are being extolled in magazines, on the television, and on food packaging, but what are these mysterious little fellas? Very briefly, antioxidants are substances that protect our cells from the effects of free radicals. Free radicals have nothing to do with anarchism, but are molecules that are damaging to our bodies. Antioxidants are found in fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as some meats and fish. Foods with higher than usual concentrations of antioxidants are known as 'super foods'. To sum up, antioxidants are good for you and they are found in wine.
The antioxidants found in wine originally come from the grapes they are made from. The type of antioxidants in grapes and wine are polyphenol antioxidants, which are also found in green tea and cocoa among other things. The most important of the antioxidants found in wine is resveratrol, which is concentrated in the skins of the grape. This means that red wine, which gets its colour and flavour from the grape skins, has more resveratrol than white wine. So, red wine is thought to be especially health giving.
One of the most important benefits of the antioxidants found in wines is their cancer preventing properties. One study published in The International Journal of Cancer in 2004 found that drinking a glass or two of red wine a day might half the rate of prostate cancer. This may well have something to do with the resveratrol in the wine, as a more recent study suggests. In 2008, researchers at University of Rochester Medical Center found that pancreatic cancer cells were killed after being pre-treated with both resveratrol and irradiation.
Returning to cardiovascular disease (CVD), Serge Renaud's colleague Dr. Michel de Lorgeril found in a study published in 2002 that moderate red wine drinking reduced the risk of a second heart attack. This may well be linked to the existence of a group of chemicals in red wine known as saponins. Found in the skins of grapes, as well as olive oil, and soybeans, saponins block the absorption of cholesterol.
The existence of saporins in red wine was found by Andrew Waterhouse, Professor of Enology (wine chemistry) at the University of California, Davis, who also found that the amount of the chemical varied between grapes. Among the red wines tested by the team at Davis, red Zinfandel was found to contain the highest levels of saporins, Syrah the second highest. Then Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, which each had around the same amount. White wines had much less saporin.
Despite these seemingly beneficial chemicals in red wine, issues have been raised with the French Paradox. The healthiness of the French lifestyle has been questioned (they're not that healthy really, and coronary disease has been under-reported or will rise as they eat more truly unhealthy foods, especially containing transfats) - and attention has been drawn to other factors that might account for the healthiness of the French (they currently eat less transfats and get more sunlight which increases vitamin D and is good for the arteries).
As with all science, there is some difference of opinion, however, there does seem to be good reason for believing that drinking red wine in moderation is good for you and your wellbeing. There's nothing quite like sitting around laughing with friends over a good dinner and a glass of good wine. It is so good for the soul.
This is good for the wine lovers among us, so let's toast to the good news. Just make sure it's only a single glass (or two on special occasions), but then again there's aways another glass to look forward to tomorrow.
