In Cao Cao's poem, it is said that "drinking wine is the geometry of life". Although drinking is a great enjoyment of life, it affects our health, and we may get fatty liver or cirrhosis one day. However, moderate consumption of low-alcohol wine, such as one or two glasses of red wine with meals, not only improves the fun of life, but also has a good health care effect. Why not have your cake and eat it?

Red wine refers to a natural healthy drink containing alcohol fermented from red grapes with skins. According to the sugar content of alcohol, it can be divided into dry type, semi-dry type, semi-sweet type and sweet type. Li Shizhen, a pharmacologist in Ming Dynasty, recorded in Compendium of Materia Medica that wine has the effect of "warming the waist and kidney, preserving color and keeping out the cold". Modern tests have proved that wine contains hundreds of compounds, including sugar, minerals, vitamins, amino acids and other nutrients, as well as complex mixtures of alcohol, ester, acid, aldehyde, ketone and phenol, which has high health care value.

Nutritional function

Heat energy: The calorific value of dry red wine is equivalent to that of milk. 1 l 10 degree dry red wine has a calorific value of 560 kcal, which is mainly the heat energy provided by alcohol oxidation. If it is sweet wine, the sugar in it is also the main source of heat energy.

Amino acids: There are 8 kinds of amino acids that cannot be synthesized by human body, which are called "essential amino acids". These eight "essential amino acids" are found in both grapes and wine. This is unmatched by any fruit or drink, so people call wine "natural amino acid food", which is approved by the United Nations Health Food Organization as the healthiest and most hygienic food. In red wine, the contents of these eight amino acids are very close to those in human blood, and moderate drinking can effectively supplement the needs of the human body.

Minerals: The minerals contained in wine include "trace elements" (such as iron, zinc, copper, manganese, iodine, chromium, etc. ) and calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, etc. It is also a nutrient that the human body needs.

Others: wine also contains a variety of B vitamins and vitamins C, P and other nutrients needed by the human body.

Health function

Appetite and spleen, help digestion and prevent constipation.

The natural acidic substances of grapes are all dissolved in wine, and their acidity is close to gastric acid (pH 2~2.5). So wine, as a good seasoning, can help to digest and absorb protein. In addition, wine contains sorbitol, which is beneficial to the secretion of bile and pancreatic juice, not only enhances the digestion and absorption of food in gastrointestinal tract, but also regulates the function of colon, and has certain curative effect on colitis. Therefore, drinking before meals, especially for middle-aged and elderly people, can help digestion and is very beneficial to the body. At the same time, tannins in wine increase the contractility of intestinal muscle fibers, and potassium tartrate and potassium sulfate can diuretic and prevent edema.

Prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases

Wine contains more anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, tannins and other substances, which have obvious functions of dilating blood vessels and enhancing blood vessel permeability. These substances are more abundant in red wine than in white wine. Modern medicine points out that the chief culprit of cardiovascular diseases is the high content of cholesterol and blood lipids in the blood. The human body's high-density lipoprotein can transport cholesterol in blood vessels to the liver, and then convert it into hormones useful to the human body, and the excess part is discharged from feces. Drinking wine in moderation, especially red wine, can increase HDL and reduce the contents of cholesterol and blood lipids in the body, thus preventing atherosclerosis and heart disease.

For example, in the French diet, their representative foods such as whipped cream, butter and cheese all contain a lot of animal fat. The French consume almost four times as much saturated fatty acids as Americans and Britons, but strangely, the probability of French suffering from atherosclerotic heart disease is only 1/3 of that of Americans and Britons. Many experts believe that this strange phenomenon-"French contradiction" is related to the French lifestyle of drinking wine at every meal, especially red wine.

Prevention of stroke

Studies have shown that red wine is an incredible anticoagulant. Drinking a little red wine often can dilute blood and prevent thrombosis in blood vessels, thus preventing the occurrence or attack of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. French scientists confirmed in a study that red wine can not only inhibit platelet aggregation to prevent thrombosis, but also improve the level of high density lipoprotein. Therefore, researchers claim that the anticoagulant effect of red wine on protecting cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is unique. New evidence shows that people who drink red wine are less likely to have a stroke. In a study of a group of 10000 subjects 16 years, it was found that people who drink 1~6 glasses of red wine every week have a lower incidence of stroke than those who don't drink or rarely drink. Therefore, Dr. John Falk, a cardiovascular disease expert at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, once said, "Drinking red wine can produce antithrombotic effect in human blood, which is better than taking aspirin, because taking aspirin will cause stomach upset."

Anti-wrinkle

Red wine is a powerful exogenous antioxidant. Free radicals are related to human diseases and aging, and antioxidants prevent them from attacking human cells by scavenging free radicals. The human body will produce effective endogenous antioxidants, but it also needs exogenous antioxidants to supplement this defense system. Red wine is called six kinds of strong exogenous resistance.

One of the oxidants (specially made fresh olive oil, tea, fruits, vegetables, red wine, vitamin antioxidants). Antioxidants in red wine can act on active oxygen groups in many ways, and the simplest way is to remove active substances. Salicylic acid, benzoic acid and their metabolites in wine belong to active oxygen scavengers. Another important way to eliminate reactive oxygen species is to provide hydrogen ions through antioxidants, which combine with oxygen free radicals to eliminate reactive oxygen species. Catechols and anthocyanins in wine can scavenge oxygen free radicals.

Rich in resveratrol

Scientists have isolated resveratrol, an effective component of red wine's health care function. Its chemical name is trihydroxystilbene, which was first reported by American scholars in 1992. It is a plant antitoxin produced by grape plants under ultraviolet radiation. Scholars at home and abroad generally believe that resveratrol has strong antioxidant properties, which can effectively scavenge free radicals, inhibit various oxidation reactions that cause atherosclerosis and thrombosis, promote blood circulation and reduce deposition on blood vessel walls, and has special effects on preventing heart disease and stroke. As a health drink for middle-aged and elderly people, red wine can prevent Alzheimer's disease. More encouragingly, resveratrol has certain anticancer activity, and its antioxidant and antimutagenic functions can be blocked in three stages of cancer occurrence (initial stage, development stage and spread stage).

Precautions for drinking

A large number of research data come to the same conclusion: the key to good health care effect of red wine is moderation and regularity. Most experts suggest that the daily consumption of red wine is between 50 ml and 200 ml, and different people can choose. As someone pointed out, wine is a double-edged sword, and red wine is no exception. Proper and regular drinking has a good health care effect, while excessive or excessive drinking is counterproductive. Experts also pointed out that for patients with liver disease, women with breast cancer tendency or pregnant women, don't drink alcohol (including red wine).