So lately I’ve been infatuated with the whole idea of wine’s health benefits. It just seems so righteous. Wine is consumed by all nationalities, ethnicities, races, and religions and has been around since the roots of civilization. It’s not surprising that it gives us a little more than a buzz.
In the Fortune article pictured left, it was discussed that wine, more specifically red wine, has a double attack on aging. It works right at the core of our life force… the energy producing components of our cells known as mitochondria, which convert sugars into energy and ultimately power the human body. However, just like a coal plant produces energy and pollutes greenhouse gases that harm our planet, mitochondria also pollute in the form of free radicals that cause damage to our cells and our bodies. These free radicals also harm other mitochondria, causing them to become more inefficient and give off more free radicals, thus sparking the cell-degrading snowball effect that is thought to be a major cause of aging.
We may have an answer, however. We now know that wine has not one, but two ways to combat free radicals. First, it has antioxidants, which most people are familiar with. Antioxidants are also found in green tea and orange juice and they serve to soak up the free radicals produced in the body, thus eliminating their harmful potential. Secondly, and more importantly, red wine possesses a compound known as Resveratrol (topic of Fortune article), which activates an enzyme that creates new and increasingly efficient mitochondria. To put this in perspective: Whereas antioxidants will just make you feel better, new efficient mitochondria can lead to weight loss, increased endurance, and even disease prevention, including cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimers!
Could wine become the human elixir?… More on this later
