A Malbec every 6 hours, then call me - Wine & Health
Today, I thought about writing about the history and chemistry behind wine (since I already somehow covered that piss-like beverage some people worship, called beer), but then I realized that it'd be like talking about the intricacies of how to weld tho steel bars together (you may think its easy, but... if done wrong it breaks). I've very little clue about wines, except from the knowledge that comes from my family (most of my mother's side of the family is from Mendoza, Argentina). I loved sodas when I was little, and always asked my elder why did they prefer wine. One of my uncles didn't tell me that he loved getting wasted, he said that he drank it because it was good for the heart. As time passed by, after unaccountable BBQs; I noticed that, obviously, a lot of people is worried about the health of their hearts!
Beyond the ability wine has to lubricate the passing of a poorly chewed piece of meat down the throat, wine has a long history bound to medicine. There is even some Sumerian and Egyptian papyrus that have some sort of "prescriptions" that instruct people to drink wine, the eldest medical documents we know about!
It looks like Hippocrates also loved getting wasted, since he recommended wine as a cornerstone of a healthy diet, (he also prescribed it for cases of diarrhea). It is very likely that he too that idea off the Egyptians. Anyways, wine "prescriptions" prevailed in time until very recently, a fact totally understandable if we consider that the 20th century medicine was practically the same one that was performed 2500 years ago in the Mediterranean area, probably thanks to fans of the magic carpenter that set ablaze the Ancient Library of Alexandria.
In my country, the medical recommendation that involves drinking wine to have a healthy heart come from Favaloro (I've to write about that guy, he was a literal genius... I can risk saying that every single person on earth has a relative alive thanks to him). It was probably said by someone else, but Favaloro had "a voice" and whatever he said even in small talk, was heavily promoted later by the media. My grandparents always mentioned him.
Scientists got their attention into wine and its effects and found several substances in it that could be responsible of some good things. Polyphenols, a group of assorted compounds that banners the name of "healthy chemicals" (BTW, they are also in chocolates! How can that possibly be bad?) -you do not know, but as I typed "chocolates" I had to get up and go buy me some, now I'm back-. It seems that they have some antioxidant properties and "could" prevent cancer and cardiovascular problems (of course, when this is claimed it is not a simple cause >> effect, other factors are involved.
The most renowned and studied polyphenol present in the red wine is the resveratrol. Research suggests that it could also prevent diabetes and obesity (unless you use it as mouthwash for 8 meals a day). Now, lets take an OBJECTIVE look, all the researchs that reported these benefits were done in cell cultures and lab animals with resveratrol equivalents to all the wine that is drank in Mendoza in a month. It would be the same to claim that bleach can cure cancer because it destroys cancer cells in a petri dish.
Sadly for the human volunteers about these resveratrol studies are mainly focused at Northern Hemisphere. The latest results display that wine is VERY VERY GOOD at getting us drunk, nothing else. These USA and Italy scientists, decided to measure resveratrol and cancer, cardiovascular problems and mortality ratios in general. For this, they went to a town in Italy where wine is more abundant than water and took urine and blood samples from there for 9 years. The thing is, resveratrol levels had no relation with anything.
Wine is not as beneficial as a healthy diet and physical activity, and that there's more positive things in abstinence rather than in consumption.
The "risk free" alcohol simply does not exist if you want to drink, drink: don't look for stupid excuses.
If you liked this post and its informal way of talking about sciences, please, follow me for more!
Leave a comment either for good or for bad reviews. I take everything as constructive, and I really appreciate the feedback, even from trolls (at least a troll read it before being himself!).
Copyrights:
All the previously used images are of my authory or under a CC0 license (Source: pixabay), unless openly stated.
All the Images created by me possess a WTFPL licencing and they are free to redistribute, share, copy, paste, modify, sell, crop, paste, clone in whatever way you want.
This post has been ranked within the top 50 most undervalued posts in the first half of Jan 28. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $6.68 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Jan 28 - Part I. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
I love me some Malbec. But yes, alcohol isn't great for the body, but it is fun. :)