by Shirley Eisenberg

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: January 28, 2009

Raise your glass and toast your health! It's official. Wine is good for you.

If you enjoy the odd glass of wine you are less likely to suffer from a number of ailments including heart disease, cancer, and infections. Research also shows that moderate wine drinking can slow the aging process.

The problem with wine consumption however is that it contains alcohol, too much of which will counteract the health benefits. It's all a matter of balance. Keep to no more than two unit's of alcohol a day and you can reap the benefits without fear of causing health problems in other areas, such as liver, kidney, mental and social problems. Remember that a glass of wine is not necessarily one unit of alcohol. It is more likely to be two. Also you have to remember that wine is quite high in calories in a form that can raise the blood sugar level quite quickly, so too much can cause you to put on some extra pounds.

Having said that, consuming wine, especially red wine, has so many benefits that if you know you can control the amount you drink it is well worth your while to include it in a healthy lifestyle.

So what is it about wine that is so good? Wine is rich in antioxidants called flavanoids. These have a number of health benefits.

Let's take a look at these antioxidants and what they can do for your health.

The most well known health benefits are those on the heart. Drinking wine can increase the amount of good cholesterol in the system and reduce the bad. This in turn will make it less likely for your arteries to become narrowed and blocked. It is this narrowing and blocking of the arteries that can cause heart disease, poor circulation to the extremities and impotence in men. Antioxidants help to reduce free radicals in the body which can cause premature aging.

But there are also other less well known benefits. Red grapes, and therefore red wines, contains an antioxidant known as resveratrol. This has a number of health benefits.

Resveratrol has antibiotic qualities so can help to reduce the likelihood of infections. It can help fight cancer. It can reduce atherosclerosis which is hardening of the arteries, thus helping with blood flow. It is also anti inflammatory so can help with the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory disorders.

It is also thought that resveratrol can aid in weight loss because of its effect on certain proteins in cells which cause increased expenditure of energy.

Again here, red wine is better than white because most of the resveratrol

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