Is Red Wine Good for You?

A lot of health “experts” will tell you that drinking is bad for your health. After all, alcohol slows down your metabolism, affects your digestion, and adds unnecessary calories to your diet. According to some, you should cut alcohol completely from your diet.

But, perhaps they’re not as correct as they might think. It turns out red wine may be better for your health than you might realise…

Is Red Wine Good for You: Health Benefits of Red Wine

First thing to mention here to all wine drinkers (not just red wine), is that by choosing organic wine, you’ll instantly be one step ahead to improving your health. Not only will you be avoiding all those trace amounts of chemical pesticides, insecticides and herbicides, you’ll also likely be cutting down on your consumption of the common wine preservative sulphur dioxide. As we like to say at Vintage Roots – Drink responsibly, drink organic.

Here are some of the main benefits you get from drinking red wine:

1. Store Less Fat

Some alcohol may cause you to store fat (there’s a reason it’s called a “beer gut”), but not red wine when consumed in moderation. In one study, a team of researchers fed mice a high-fat diet for 10 weeks.

Half of the mice were given extracts from Pinot Noir grapes (the sort used to make red wine), while the others ate normal food. Those who consumed the grape extract stored less fat, thanks to the ellargic acids that delay fat cell growth and prevent new fat cells from developing.

Drinking red wine can help you to suppress fat storage, preventing weight gain!

2. Protect Your Liver

The human liver is one of the first places to store fat. Too much fat stored in your liver, and you develop what is known as fatty liver disease.

Drinking a glass or two of wine per day can help to reduce the amount of fat stored in your liver, which reduces your risk of developing diabetes-like symptoms.

By reducing liver fat storage, you can prevent a high-fat diet from having negative consequences on your metabolism.

3. Improve Brain Health

Red wine is amazing for the health of your brain! Red wine contains resveratrol, a powerful antioxidant that is produced during the fermentation of the grapes. Resveratrol is found in the skin of the dark red grapes, and the antioxidant can help to protect the cells of your brain from decay and degradation.

Drinking wine can reduce risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other disorders caused by age. #wine #health #winelovers

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Resveratrol reduces cellular damage (caused by fats, toxins, and free radicals), as well as slows the effects of aging – reducing your risk of developing Alzheimer’s and other disorders caused by age taking its toll on your brain.

4. Boost Heart Health

Is red wine good for your heart? Absolutely! Not only will it help to reduce your risk of heart disease, but it can help to control your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol, and prevent both heart attacks and strokes. The tannins in red wine contain procyanins, a form of antioxidants that give the wine its color.

Is red wine good for your cholesterol? Thanks to these tannins, your body will have an easier time controlling harmful cholesterol levels, and you’ll even give your good HDL cholesterol levels a boost. Red wine and blood pressure medications may not mix, but red wine can help to keep your blood pressure stable and under control.

All in all, thanks to red wine, you can keep your heart healthy and strong!

5. Improve Overall Health

Is red wine good for your skin? Thanks to the antioxidants it contains, you can reduce the toxins in your body and prevent them from doing damage to your skin. You can also stave off the effects of age, and may even extend your lifespan!

Studies have proven that drinking red wine can lower your mortality rate by as much as 34%, meaning you’ll live a longer, happier (more wine-filled) life!

It’s all thanks to the antioxidant resveratrol, which helps to scavenge free radicals and boost your heart health!

6. Fight Cancer

Imagine if drinking a few glasses of wine per day was all you needed to beat cancer! Wouldn’t that be awesome? Sadly, it’s not that simple, but it has been proven that red wine is a powerful anti-carcinogen.

Red wine contains quercetin, an antioxidant that causes cancer cell apoptosis (death). It’s most effective in cases of colon cancer, as the antioxidant causes the cancer cells to die off.

A lot more research is needed to discover just how red wine helps to fight cancer, but it’s good to know that it can!

7. Boosts Your Fitness

Did you know that drinking a few glasses of wine per week can have AMAZING effects on your body? Resveratrol will help to improve your physical performance, boost your muscular strength, and enhance your cardiovascular system – just like working out at the gym will!

A glass of red wine may not be a replacement to your hours spent at the gym every week, but they can certainly be an ADDITION to your healthy diet!

8. Prevent Blood Clots

You may think that clots are important; after all, they’re what help to reduce bleeding when you are cut or sustain injuries. And yes, clotting is important for most injuries, but when it comes to your cardiovascular system, clots can be your worst enemy!

When cholesterol builds up on the walls of your arteries, it hardens into plaque. That plaque can crack, cracking the arterial walls with it. Your body reacts by forming a clot in the area to prevent the artery from bleeding out, but that clot blocks the flow of healthy blood.

Anything on the other side of that clot is suddenly not receiving fresh blood, essentially starving the cells of both oxygen and nutrients. Imagine if that was your brain or heart on the other side of that clot – big trouble!

Thankfully, red wine helps to reduce clotting in your cardiovascular system, drastically reducing your risk of serious problems like heart attacks, strokes, and peripheral arterial disease.

9. Mood enhancer

Not to be underestimated, drinking wine is a genuinely enjoyable experience, which lifts the mood, and can lower stress levels.

different types of wine

Best Types of Wine to Drink

If you want to be healthy, drink:

Mostly red wine – Red wine contains the most tannins, quercetin, resveratrol, and antioxidants. It is the one that will offer the most health benefits with the least amount of sugar. Think Merlots, Cabernets, Pinots, and Syrahs. The drier the flavor profile, the higher the tannin and antioxidant content.
Some rosé wine – Rosé wine contains less resveratrol, but there are still some–hence its pink color. It’s higher in sugar than dark red wine, so drink with moderation.
Some white wine – White wine does offer a few health benefits (heart, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.), but not as many as red wine. Add a glass or two of white wine to your week for pleasure’s sake, but not for its health benefits!