A Toast to Your Health

Buzz if your goals include: eating better, exercising more and getting healthy. The next time you raise a glass of wine to toast a friend's health, you may be doing more than expressing goodwill. For some of the same reasons "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" a glass of wine a day may set you on your way to wellness.

The Good News on Wine
Now is a great time to enjoy the pleasures of wine, especially since science is discovering the potentially powerful health benefits of drinking the fruit of the vine. We've all heard that red wine is good for us, but how good it is depends on how much and how often you drink it. When it comes to health, all alcoholic beverages are not created equal. While all may have the power to relax us, only red wine contains a lot of polyphenols, heart-friendly antioxidants that help inhibit plaque buildup in the arteries. Polyphenols, or tannins, which are derived from grape skins and seeds give red wine its color and act as protectors against cell damage caused by nasty molecules called free radicals. Wine is not the only source of polyphenols; they're also abundant in a wide variety of foods, including tea, chocolate and many fruits and vegetables.

The Art of Living Well
In the New York Times best-seller, French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure, Mireille Guiliano unlocks the simple secrets of the "French Paradox" – how French women, eating in the traditional way, can enjoy rich food and wine without getting fat (or suffer high rates of heart disease.) In a stylish and convincing way Guiliano clears up the mystery by giving away some French "secrets" which include getting regular exercise (not in the gym, but by walking); eating small portions; eating fresh and seasonally; savoring food to increase the feeling of satisfaction and drinking plenty of liquids. Above all, the book outlines eating for pleasure as a motivating factor in losing and maintaining weight. She goes on to say, "pleasure has proved to be the most powerful and lasting motivation..... If we can all harness the pleasure principle, we can lose weight, as French women have done for generations." Guiliano, former CEO of Clicquot Champagne, provides advice that is charming, sensible and tasty.

The "French Paradox"
The potential health benefits of wine were first popularized by the "French Paradox," a 1991 segment on the television show "60 Minutes." The program doesn't talk about wine very often, but when it does, people listen. Their findings uncovered the paradoxical fact that the French have relatively low national rates of coronary heart disease despite their rich diet. Along with moderate wine consumption a few classic principles of French gastronomy are worth taking note of. First, French people who drink alcohol tend not to vary their amount day to day but are consistent with moderate consumption. In contrast, many Americans drink no alcohol during the week and a large amount on weekends, a pattern which appears to increase risk of heart attack. Second, the French habit of eating smaller portions slowly at mealtimes. Rapid consumption of high-calorie meals tends to cause the body to store more energy as fat, and is more likely to lead to overeating than is the French-style of lingering over meals. In addition, the French would rather have a small amount of something delicious than endless quantities of low-fat food that is ultimately unsatisfying. Viva Le France.

While some of the recent wine and health studies are more conclusive than others, many of them offer a good reason to make wine part of a healthy lifestyle. I'll drink to that!