12 Reasons to Drink Wine Daily

Become a member | Learn more | Member sign in   January 16, 2015 Want to lose weight without giving up your favorite indulgences, like wine and chocolate? Then take advantage of this FREE 7-day Sonoma Diet online membership offer to try it yourself! Click here for more info. 12 Reasons to Drink Wine Daily Starting in Wave 2, you are encouraged to accompany one daily meal (presumably dinner) with a glass of red or white wine. For a modest amount of calories, a daily glass of wine has been clearly shown in recent years to reduce your risk of heart disease. And it's not just the risk of heart disease that goes down with moderate wine consumption. Solid recent research is providing a clearer understanding of how wine may help prevent or relieve the effects of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and even osteoporosis. At the same time, wine imparts a mealtime sense of relaxation and enjoyment that is essential to your new weight-loss lifestyle. Besides the obvious gustatory delight that a good glass of wine adds to food enjoyment, the very act of choosing wine, opening it, and pouring it, and drinking it slows down the whole eating process—which is just what you want. Wine contains polyphenols—antioxidants that include the varieties of flavanols, tannins, and anthocyanins. It could very well be that the combination of these phytonutrients stimulates greater health benefits than any one of them could do alone. There's plenty of evidence that alcohol itself, in moderation, has cardiovascular benefits. But wine's heart-protective effect clearly goes beyond the alcohol (ethanol) in it. It's the result of a huge array of the phytonutrients, including the amazing compound resveratrol. Resveratrol can be found in table grapes, which are a Power Food. But the heart-protective antioxidant action is even stronger in wine than in grapes. Many scientific studies have concluded that wine consumption is much more strongly correlated with reduced risk of death from heart disease than drinking other forms of alcohol. In these studies "moderate consumption" is defined as one to three drinks per day. Of course, we're on a tight budget when it comes to calories, so follow the one-glass-per-day rule if you're still trying to reach your goal weight. Members Get More! Sign Up Now! Monday:  Beef and Mushroom Kabobs  Enjoying this newsletter? Sign up for other free newsletters. More from The New Sonoma Diet!   Connie's Tip of the Day Making the Glass Last If you find it hard to make one glass of wine go the distance during dinner or your next social gathering, try alternating sips between the wine and a glass of sparkling or lemon-flavored water. Or you can enjoy two glasses and double the fun by mixing sparkling water with your favorite wine. If you're at a party, simply ask for a white-wine spritzer. Your Sonoma Diet Tools   500 Recipes   Wine Guide   Online Dietitians   Weight Tracker   Message Boards   Shopping Lists Advertisement