moderate? This being a health
question, the experts seem to err on the side of caution.
Population studies have observed a J curve association between
wine consumption and the risk of heart disease. This means that
abstainers and heavy drinkers have an elevated risk, while
moderate drinkers have a lower risk. We were unable to locate a
chart illustrating the drop-off for heavy drinking but the
wikipedia.org survey of government recommended portions shows 2
to 3 drinks per day as the upper limit.
Worldwide, drinking causes almost
as much harm as smoking, according to the World
Health Organization. The agency estimates that
alcohol causes 1.8 million deaths around the
world every year; about a third of those deaths
are accidents that could have been avoided. The
WHO also estimates that worldwide, alcohol
causes or plays a role in 20 per cent to 30 per
cent of all cases of esophageal cancer, liver
cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, homicide,
epileptic seizures and traffic accidents.
|
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
 RSS: Wine Health |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
frenchedonist.com
 |
|||||||||||
Wine and Health Benefits
|
|||||||||||
| Cancer Prevention & Red wine by medicinenet.com cardiovascular and cancer benefits of specific chemical compounds, polyphenols, found in red wines | |||||||||||
| Wine's
antioxidant assets * Improved brain and muscle function also has been associated with moderate wine consumption . * A number of very nasty bacteria and viruses are inactivated by wine and by grapes (but, surprisingly, in some cases not by alcohol). * One report suggests that antioxidants may help prevent toxemia in pregnancy. * Long noted, but unexplained, has been a disparity between the number of alcohol calories ingested and weight gain. A peek into the mystery may be offered by the recent observation that catechin polyphenols (flavonoid antioxidants, as found in wine and green tea), stimulate the "burning" of body fat. Dr. Harvey E. Finkel |
| WINE: The French Paradox | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The French paradox refers to the observation
that the French suffer a relatively low incidence of coronary
heart disease, despite having a diet relatively rich in
saturated fats like cheese, butter, eggs, and organ meats. Wine
through history has enjoyed a healthy reputation among
philosophers and medical practitioners but it was not until 1991
that the virtue of moderation trumping abstinence became a
commonly accepted truth. Thus the story of wine in the 21st
century can be told as a tribute to French culture.
France produces more wine than any other country, only Italy is close. It is well established now that moderate alcohol drinkers live longer than abstainers or heavy drinkers. More than 400 studies over the past 70 years have analyzed the health benefits of drinking wine which show that moderate drinking of red wine helps prevent heart disease, cancer, and other conditions. The French paradox phenomenon was first
noted by Irish physician Samuel Black in 1819. The term French
paradox was coined by Dr. Serge Renaud, a scientist from
Bordeaux University in France in 1992. In 1998 Renaud and colleagues from the University of Bordeaux expanded the study and reported (Epidemiology, March, 1998) that moderate wine consumption (2-3 glasses a day) was associated with a 30% reduction in the death rate from all causes; a 35% percent reduction in death rates from cardiovascular disease; and an 18-24% reduction in death rates from cancer. “The results of the present study,” the researchers write, “appear to confirm the speculation that the so-called French Paradox is due, at least in part, to the regular consumption of wine. Exactly how the process works is still being worked out by the researchers but one study found that the ingestion of alcohol; equivalent to two glasses of wine or three beers, with a high-fat meal resulted in a 20% decrease in the growth of arterial muscle cells. A general conclusion is that alcohol consumed with a meal may prevent blood clotting triggered by fat. Wine’s biggest health claim is its ability to
help prevent chronic heart disease. This is significant, because
the single largest cause of death in developed countries is from
heart attacks. Healthy people have arteries that are smooth on
the inside. Blood flows freely without obstruction. In
heart disease, plaque builds up, creating a rough spot on the
inside of the vessel. Your body detects this and sends platelets
to the site. Platelets adhere to the rough spot, causing more
obstruction. When blood supply diminishes to a dribble, then
tissue death results.
The benefits of red wine appear to be linked to the presence of resveratrol, melatonin and flavinoids. Flavinoids are thought to help protect the
body from cancer because of their antioxidant properties.
They help the body neutralize certain free radicals that can
trigger the cellular activity that may lead to cancer.
Many foods that can improve or prevent certain health conditions
contain flavonoids. Think of flavonoids as "biological
response modifers."
Wine contains quercitin, which is a flavonoid. Quercitin can change your body’s reaction to allergens, viruses, and carcinogens, and reduce your response to inflammation. Melatonin — a substance present in
red wine and some foods and that humans naturally produce in
small amounts — is thought to delay the oxidative damage and
inflammatory processes typical of old age. Red wine has been credited with more than keeping your heart healthy and delaying the aging process. It has also shown promising results in preventing prostate cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, leukemia and some common food-borne illnesses. In 2008 Israeli researchers announced a white wine process which would also contain the health-giving flavinoids of red wine. Israeli wine manufacturer Binyamina is now using the recipe to manufacture this healthier white wine.
What is the
optimal
amount of daily consumption? It is common now to read that for women their
best bet is
Drinking wine has grown in popularity—especially since 1992, when Renaud and DeLongeril presented the discovery of the "French Paradox." Although the French ate a diet high in saturated fat, their mortality rate from chronic heart disease was unexpectedly lower than other industrialized countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom. And the most striking difference between the French diet and the diets of other countries is their consumption of wine. The beneficial effects of alcohol have been praised since the origin of drinks; it is true that the therapeutic effects might have been of value at a time when neither anesthetics nor tranquillizers existed. Findings on wine's health benefits have led to a renewed appetite around the world for this ancient drink. From 1949 to 1998, the number of wine-producing countries has jumped from 40 to 74 and production has risen by 85 percent. Today more people than ever drink wine for health and for pleasure.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Wine though the ages from Gaul or France |
|
| Winemaking was an established art in Egypt by 3000 BC. Kings grew two sets of vines, for funereal and domestic wines. Chinese legends from that period also speak of wine drinking. | |
|
Greeks who settled in Marseille around 600 BC
taught the Gauls to make wine. The Greeks credited the god Dionysus with the gift of wine. The peoples of the Mediterranean began emerged leaving barbarism for civilization when they learnt to cultivate the olive and the vine. The much adopted and exported Greek culture taught these virtues. Many succeeding generations of artists have celebrated these virtues and France has cultivated an appreciation for these sensibilities throughout the many opposing currents and zeitgeists which succeeded in repressing this thinking elsewhere. |
|
| Under the Romans, Bordeaux, the Rhone valley and the Iberian peninsula also became well-established wine-producing regions. | |
| In 92 AD the Emperor Domitian, threatened by competition, ordered half the Gallic vines pulled up. When restrictions were lifted in 280 BC, regions such as Burgundy and Alsace started to produce wine. | |
| A French doctor wrote the earliest known printed book about wine around 1410 A.D. | |
| The World Health Organization showed that France had the lowest death rate from heart disease in the industrialized western world, despite the French habits of smoking, eating fatty foods and shunning exercise. Only the Japanese, with their low-fat diet of fish and rice, had a lower rate. | |
 |
|
| Wine: Civilization's strongest ally | |
| Health & Medicine | |
| Ancient cultures recognized wine's virtues as a medicine and an antiseptic. A medical prescription based on wine has been found on an Egyptian papyrus. | |
| From Homer's time until recently, wine was used to disinfect wounds. Hippocrates prescribed it as a diuretic and to calm a fever. | |
Wine is a mild natural
tranquilizer, serving to reduce anxiety and tension. As part of
a normal diet, wine provides the body with energy, with
substances that aid digestion, and with small amounts of
minerals and vitamins. It can also stimulate the appetite. In
addition, wine serves to restore nutritional balance, relieve
tension, sedate and act as a mild euphoric agent to the
convalescent and especially the aged. |
|
| Most of the pathogens that threaten humans are inhibited or killed off by the acids and alcohols in wine. Because of this, wine was considered to be a safer drink than much of the available water up until the 18th century. | |
| Until the 20th century, hospitals and private doctors relied on wine to treat all sorts of ailments. White wines were prescribed as diuretics, red Burgundies for dyspepsia, red Bordeaux for stomach disorders, and Champagne for nausea and catarrh. Today wine is still a component in many medications. | |
| How Much is Too Much? | |
| Post mortem studies show that dead alcoholics
have relatively "clean" arteries. But for this group, the
dangers of alcohol abuse greatly outweigh any benefit from
alcohol. Abstinence, for this group is the only solution and thus discussions of the health benefits of alcohol and wine are often tempered or watered down by this need to reinforce the respect that not drinking needs to maintain for the sake of not letting others fall off the wagon. Risk of progression to problem drinking is the major health risk of moderate drinking. The main debate for the medical profession is whether the risks of problem drinking outweigh giving the advice to patients to drink moderately. Still it would seem that the public health approach popularly known as "Just Say NO" is widely discredited and as likely to cause harm by daring in abuse the most "at risk" populations. Promoting a healthy relationship of moderation with pleasures and the occasional annual release from the tedium of habit a Carnaval celebration can add to life would appear the better approach by public health organizations. |
|
|
Let your boat of life be light,
packed with only what you need - a homely home and
simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name,
someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog,
and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and
a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a
dangerous thing. Three Men in a Boat |
|
|
"I have enjoyed great health at a great age because everyday
since I can remember, I have consumed a bottle of wine except
when I have not felt well. Then I have consumed two bottles." --- Bishop of Seville |
|
|
Pour out the wine without restraint
or stay, Pour not by cups, but by the bellyful, Pour out to all that wull. ---Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) Epithalamion, 250 |
|
| Ritual | |
|
|
|
|
“Wine is a living liquid containing no preservatives. Its life
cycle comprises youth, maturity, old age, and death. When not
treated with reasonable respect it will sicken and die.” --- Julia Child |
|
|
"Presenting the cork is wine nonsense, a ritual invented by
captains and sommeliers. The wine snob doesn’t resent ritual.
There is infinite ritual in the etiquette of serving wine. But
most of it at least hints at style or purpose. Placing an
unsightly cork on the tablecloth hints at absurdity." --- Leonard S. Bernstein |
