It's Official! Wine Drinkers are Healthier. Period.

Isn’t it wonderful when you discover that your favorite sin is good for you? Well, my passion for all things vino has led me into the budget-busting world of multiple subscriptions to everything, and my latest issue of Wine Spectator Online was just chock full of great stuff. Well, the latest issue just put a big smile on my face!

Before I get to that, however, I just want to throw out a little opinion about Wine Spectator. While I think the printed edition is a little pompous and the ratings somewhat skewed to the advertising dollar, I *really* like the online version. Much less arrogant, very approachable, and not so tannic. Kind of a like a really good red wine. I’ve been enjoying the issues for a couple of months now, and wanted to share an ongoing series that they’ve been printing.

According to an article written in the online version, wine drinkers are healthier than drinkers of beer and spirits. This is based on new research conducted on men living in Finland. That's not too much of a surprise considering the lifestyles associated with each of the beverage types, but the study also suggested that moderate consumption of wine may contribute to a better, longer life. They cited a study done over the course of nearly 30 years which looked at the cardiovascular health of men ranging in age from 44-55 years. The study began in 1974.

Results. Alcoholic beverage preference tracked well during the follow-up. Total alcohol consumption was not significantly different between preference groups. Men with wine preference had the lowest total mortality due to lower cardiovascular mortality. With the spirits group as the reference category and age, cardiovascular risk factors, and total alcohol consumption as covariates, wine drinkers had a 34% lower total mortality (relative risk 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.45–0.98); relative risk for beer preferers was 0.91 (95% confidence interval, 0.68–1.14). In 2000, wine preferers had the highest scores in all RAND-36 scales; general health (p =.007) and mental health (p =.01) were also significantly different. (Cite: The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 62:213-218 (2007)

http://biomed.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/62/2/213)

And that’s not all! Another article indicated that the red in red wine kills cancer cells. Anthocyanidin, a natural antioxidant found in grape skins and brightly colored fruits and vegetables, not only kills leukemia cells, but it leaves healthy cells alone. As written in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, anthocyadins had no negative effects on healthy blood cells. (Cite: J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 282, Issue 18, 13468-13476, May 4, 2007). The abstract of the article is online at www.jbc.org.

Time to vote! I’m on a list of Blogs at LocalWineEvents.com. The exact page is here. Scroll down till you get to our Blog, and vote! Please! We won’t win anything, but it would be nice to have a little notice in the very big wine world. And why you’re there, take a look at some of the other blogs. There are a lot of talented people out there who are doing amazing things, and it’s worth taking the time (lots of time) to go through them.

Happy Birthday to Kristin Sande of Valley Cheese and Wine in Henderson. Her hubby, Bob, toasted her in the last email. If you haven’t visited them yet, then you are missing out on a fun, cute place. They have a lot of French, Italian, and Australian wines at very reasonable prices. But the cheese!!!!! You gotta go. Give them a call, check out their location in Google maps, and treat yourself!

I will finally get around to talking about wine clubs next week. I promise. Trust me. :-)