Donna Easto, C.H., H.C., M.H., Certified Herbal Educator
Wine may be the oldest of all drinks. The consumption of fermented fruits began when enjoyed by insects such as bees, butterflies, and birds, and mammals such as bats and chimpanzees, long before man walked upright
The earliest evidence of wine as medicine comes from the ancient city of Nippur in the Iraqi desert. A tablet from that city bears what may be the first ever medical prescription for wine as medicine. The tablet contains a number of recipes for salves infused with wine. One such prescription states “Pound together: dried wine dregs, juniper and prunes, pour beer on the mixture. Then rub [the diseased part] with oil, and bind on [as a plaster].” Grapes and wine are mentioned more often than any other plant in the Bible. The Talmud lists wine as curative for problems of the heart, eyes and bowels.
As the Black Plague ran rampant in the mid 1300s, desperate people turned to measures such as blood-letting, and rubbing onions or a chopped snake directed on the boils. One popular recipe for a wine-based cure called for “flesh of vipers, wine, opium, rhubarb, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and 65 other ingredients. It seems the mixture was considered appropriate for treating stomach weakness, laboured breathing and even the plague itself. It took until the middle ages to realize that the compound was not highly effective.
- Over the years, wine has been used as an analgesic, antiseptic, sedative and water purifier. Today, it is considered that drinking one or two drinks per day of wine reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, hardening of the arteries, and heart attack.
- Elderly men who drink one glass of wine (or other alcohol) per day seem to maintain better general thinking ability during their late 70s and 80s when compared with non-drinkers.
- People who drink moderate amounts of wine might have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Not all research agrees that wine improves blood sugar, blood pressure, or lipid levels.
- Helicobacter pylori/H. Pylori is a digestive tract infection that can lead to ulcers. Research shows that moderate (75g per week) from wine or beer can reduce the risk of the infection.
- Wine, when included as a moderate addition to the diet may help ward off certain cancers as well.
- Red wine is generally considered a better choice because it contains more powerful antioxidants (Resveratrol), polyphenols (fight premature ageing), and higher levels of silicon (helps increase the density of bones and reduce the chance of osteoporosis).
- Of course, drinking alcohol of any kind can have negative health consequences, especially if you drink too much.
Not a big fan of wine or alcohol? No problem, the latest studies show you can get all the same benefits from grape juice as you can from wine. The reason? Purple grape juice contains the same powerful disease-fighting antioxidants, called flavonoids, that are believed to give wine many of its heart-friendly benefits. The flavonoids in grape juice, like those in wine, have been shown to prevent the oxidation of bad cholesterol LDLs, or low density lipoproteins that lead to formation of plaque in artery walls.
