Five Wine Claims to Sip On
1. Weight Loss - If you want to lose weight, you might want to consider INCLUDING wine in your diet (especially before bedtime). A famous 2010 Harvard study found that women who regularly drank in moderation before bedtime had a lower risk of becoming overweight than women who didn’t drink at all.
2. Prohibition Production - During Prohibition grape juice and jelly sales skyrocketed. Some vineyards actually converted their wine production into these other types of grape products. They then sold were sold with “warnings” that if left in a cool cupboard for 21-60 days, they would turn into wine. Given the increase in sales, it’s not much of a leap to think what was happening behind closed doors.
3. Cold and Flu Prevention - Drinking red wine can prevent colds and flu viruses. Wine contains high amounts of antioxidants which come from grape skins. Red wine is fermented with the grape skins longer than white wine, so it contains more of these healing agents. A 2001 Spanish study showed that red wine drinkers were 60% less likely to get sick than people who drank other forms of alcohol or wine.
4. Older is NOT necessarily better - When it comes to wine, it usually doesn’t age gracefully, moving from youth to past prime in as little as 3-5 years. While there are many factors that go into wine aging and quality, most wine is made for drinking, not collecting. The good news is that if you get caught drinking wine past its prime, regardless of the taste, it’s not likely to make you sick. This is because alcohol acts as a natural preservative, protecting the juice from developing bacteria.
5. Women have Better Palates - When it comes to wine, women are naturally better at judging wine quality. Research from numerous studies suggest it actually has more to do with biological differences between how men and women smell things than how they taste things. Interestingly, the wine steward or sommelier industry began in Europe in the early 1900s and was a male dominated profession for many years. It wasn't until 1987 that the first American woman broke the glass ceiling by earning the prestigious master sommelier title.
So next time you have a glass of wine in hand, pause for a moment and smile before you sip and say a toast…….
“Cheers to Wine, Health and History!”
Sources:
Can Wine Before Bed Really Help You Lose Weight? Dailyburn.com
8 Reasons to Love Red Wine, Prevention.com
Wikipedia
Are Women Better Tasters than Men? NPR.org