Have a Happy & Healthy New Year! - the Parklander

WINE REVIEW
A VOTRE SANTE
By Sheila & Ben Bodenstein
Ok gang, here we go again. Some scientific types got together and have
come up with more startling, positive results about the beneficial effects
of drinking wine on a regular basis. They have isolated a chemical in red
wines called resveratrol which appears to have the ability to prolong life.
That’s right, drink red wine and live longer. While the facts have not yet
been scientifically verified, the evidence appears to be there.
About twenty years ago we had the French Paradox, the first of the
studies that proved the beneficial effects of moderate wine drinking. The
French, who consume large amounts of fat in their daily diet, suffer a
lower incidence of cardio-vascular diseases. This phenomenon was traced
back to the fact that the French consume considerable amounts of red
wine with their meals (breakfast excluded).
Over the ensuing years
since that announcement,
the truths of these facts
have been substantiated
and the benefits of moderate
wine drinking acknowledged.
Simply put, red
wines are good for your
heart, good for your circulation
and in plain words
good for you.
Now we have additional
information to add to the
ever increasing body of
knowledge on red wines. A
chemical, resveratrol, has
been found to increase the
life spans of various simple
life forms. In a recent article,
the New York Times
quoted one scientist
involved in this study, Dr.
Mark Tatar of Brown
University who “has
shown, in a report yet to be
published, that the compound
(resveratrol) has
similar effects in fruit flies. The National Institute of Aging, which sponsored
the research, plans to start a mouse study later in the year. Despite
the years of testing that will be needed to prove that resveratrol has any
effect in people, many of the scientists involved in the research have
already started drinking red wine.“One glass of red wine a day is a good
recommendation. That’s what I do now” Resveratrol, he said, is unstable
on exposure to the air and “goes off within a day of popping the cork.”
While resveratrol is found in all red wines, the wines made from the
Pinot Noir grape (which happens to be our personal favorite) has the highest
content. What we do to preserve the leftover wine is to use an inexpensive
device called a Vacu-Vin. This devise creates a vacuum in the bottle by
drawing out the air. As we said, it is an inexpensive devise, around $12, and
is indispensable if you want to preserve a wine, without significant deterioration,
for later drinking.
82 JANUARY 2007
Now that we have you all wildly
running out to buy red wines, let us
not overlook the white wines.
While red wines are good for the
heart and retarding aging, white
wines have been reported to be
good for the lungs and the respiratory
system. In plain, simple words, wine, in moderation, is good for you.
One four ounce glass of wine per day is definitely not overdoing it.
This new information finally debunks all of the prohibitionist garbage
that we have been handed all of these years concerning alcohol and alcohol
consumption. It is a fact that there are about 100,000 deaths annually
due to alcohol abuse. Now you do the math; 100,000 deaths per years in
this country in a population of 300 million. If these facts have caused such
a bru ha ha over alcohol we had better do something about staircases,
swimming pools and bathtubs because we imagine that the numbers of
deaths are about the same or even greater.
In plain, simple words, wine,
in moderation, is good for you.
The question comes up, why all of the venom directed against wine
when it has been proven to be good for you, good for your health and very
enjoyable? Are there a few prohibitionist curmudgeons in high governmental
office that are just plain against good health and fun? Did you
know that it was, until last year, a FELONY in the State of Florida to have
wines sent to you from California or elsewhere in the United States?
These are just some of the facts.Take them as you will. But honestly, with
all the data that has been presented, doesn’t the governmentally-mandated
health warning on the back label of a bottle of wine seem a bit silly now.
Bennet and Sheila Bodenstein have written about fine wine for more than
twenty years. E-mail them at bodenstein@theparklander.com.