Wine: A therapeutic drink

Usha Rani, M. and Anu Appaiah, K. A. (2015) Wine: A therapeutic drink. In: Health Benefits of Fermented Foods and Beverages. CRC Press. ISBN 978-146658810-3

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Abstract

Multiple epidemiological studies suggest that daily moderate alcohol consumption (Thun etal. 1997, Doll etal. 2005), especially of wine (Renaud and de Lorgeril 1992) is associated with a reduction in all-cause mortality and has distinct health benefits. The term “French paradox” refers to the observation that while both the French and Americans have a diet high in saturated fats, smoke cigarettes, and exercise little-all risk factors for cardiovascular disease-the French have a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease than that of Americans: 36% compared with 75% (St. Leger etal. 1979). The difference in risk has been attributed to the consumption of alcohol and, in particular, red wine by the French. The French currently consume 53.9 L per capita of wine per year, while Americans only consume 8.5 L per year. This idea was established by St. Leger etal. (1979) who found an inverse relation between coronary heart disease mortality and wine consumption, with France having the lowest mortality. French authors have reported that according to a statistical report of the World Health Organization for the year of 1989, cardio-vascular mortality in the population 35-64 years of age was much lower in France than in the similarly industrialized United States or United Kingdom in spite of the fact that the per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages in a year was the highest in France (corresponding to 15 liters of pure alcohol yearly). At the same time the other risk factors such as serum cholesterol level, average blood pressure, extent of smoking, and body mass index were similar in the age group studied. This phenomenon, the so-called French paradox is attributed to the high consumption of wine by the French. This presumption seems to be confirmed by the fact that the populations with the longest life expectancy-Cretan and Japanese people-regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol, namely 20 and 28 g a day respectively; the former as wine, and the latter as beer (MacNeil 2001) (Table 16.1). © 2015 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Wine, therapeutic drink
Subjects:	600 Technology > 07 Beverage Technology > 01 Alcoholic beverage > 02 Wine
Depositing User:	Somashekar K S
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2025 08:59
Last Modified:	24 Sep 2025 08:59
URI:	http://ir.cftri.res.in/id/eprint/19855

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