If you’ve made it this far, it’s because you probably love wine! And how about knowing that in addition to love it, it is positive for your health? It is the combination of what is useful and what is beautiful, right? Well then, the positive news for wine lovers – in this case red – is that another benefit of it has been found out.
But first, an important warning: Despite all the benefits, it is important to maintain a moderate and balanced consumption of wine and any alcoholic beverages!
So let’s go: Wine is rich in nutritional compounds that we do not know about, but are very important for us. Called polyphenols (mainly resveratrol and flavonoids), these compounds are present mainly in red wines, they have already been scientifically proven to be important and beneficial to our health, acting as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and vasodilator. In this way, some of the benefits that wine can give us are: Less risk of stroke (CVA), heart protection against heart attack, increase positive cholesterol (HDL) and reduce poor cholesterol (LDL) and lower blood pressure. In addition, studies have already shown benefits against osteoporosis and degenerative diseases.
A new target: the gut!
Recently, a new study has brought more positive news to oenophiles: A study carried out by some international researchers, proved that a glass of red wine a day, in this case the research focuses on the variety of Merlot, brings improvement in the intestinal flora , which. is together with the beneficial bacteria that live there, and by table, also ends up helping the cardiovascular system. Published by the American scientific journal Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study had, among others, Brazilian scientists.
The study involved 42 patients with an average age of 60 years who have some type of coronary artery disease (CAD), which causes blockages in blood vessels. The dynamic is made in all patients drink a glass of 250 ml of red wine – Merlot – a day for 3 weeks. The curiosity is that the wine was produced specifically for the study by the Instituto Brasileiro do Vinho. After this dynamic, the volunteers stayed for the same period, 21 days, without drinking any alcohol. In addition, during the 2 weeks before and after the study, they did not consume some substances that could interfere with the study, such as other fermented foods, prebiotics, probiotics, fiber and dairy products.
The result is that the intestinal flora has undergone a significant and important renovation after the period of consumption of the drink with microorganisms that are essential for the normal functioning of the organism.
But what about the heart?
In the case of the heart, significant changes have been observed in the balance of oxidant and antioxidant molecules, preventing oxidative stress, an important factor that causes diseases such as atherosclerosis. In other words, one more benefit of red wine for the heart, in addition to others mentioned above.
But you have to ask: Does this only work with the Merlot grape? My answer, although not a scientist or researcher, is: Probably not, because if the compound responsible for this is polyphenols, we are talking about all red grapes, but of course there are grapes with greater or lesser intensity of polyphenols , the best. known as Tannat, a French grape from the Madiran region, a little south of the famous Bordeaux.
Reinforce what I said at the beginning: Despite all these benefits, MODERATE and BALANCED consumption of wine and any alcoholic beverage is important.
The study was carried out by researchers from the universities of São Paulo (USP), Eta Campinas (Unicamp), Verona (Italy), Brasília (UnB), Harvard (USA) and the Austrian Institute of Technology (Austria), and was funded by FAPESP.