Red Wine's Health Claims Are Nothing to Whine About
Red wine has long been touted as a health elixir by the cultures and societies who have made and consumed it for ages. Modern research, and other observations, has pointed to this as having some merit. It contains resveratrol, gallic acid, and flavonoids in the form of catechins. Red wine also contains potassium, which is healthy for muscles and the heart, and some fluoride for your teeth. The healthy limit for wine is thought to be one or two 5 ounce servings per day. Wine is good for improving cardiovascular health because the aforementioned reveratrol and flavonoids are healthy for blood vessels as well as reducing the sticking together and clumping of blood platelets, thus decreasing the risk of heart attack and stroke causing clots. HDL (good) cholesterol levels are also increased by red wine consumption. The antioxidants in red wine are beneficial in possible cancer prevention. With what is known about antioxidants' prevention of cell and DNA damage, an anticancer characteri...