Tag: Healthy
Red Wine And A Healthy Diet
Posted onHere’s a question many people seem to ask whenever they are thinking of going on a diet. Does red wine fit in with the idea of a healthy diet in the first place?
Let’s take a look at what we know about staying healthy to begin with. For starters it is commonly understood that the best things we can do are to eat a balanced diet and get regular exercise in order to keep healthy. We can also add the target of maintaining a healthy weight. We all know that we should lose weight if we are carrying around too much all the time.
So where does red wine fit in to all this?
When you think of red wine, you probably think of alcohol above all else. But in fact there is a lot more to it than just a pleasant taste!
This kind of wine actually contains several things that have been thought to be good for our bodies. For starters it has antioxidants in it. These help to reduce our chances of getting all kinds of different diseases so it stands to reason that the more we can ingest, the better our chances are of staying healthy. There is also the point that many people in European countries (countries like France, where the residents tend to drink a lot of red wine in their diet) have lower incidences of the major killers such as heart disease than many other Western countries.
Great – sounds good. But is there anything else I should know about this type of wine?
The red stuff does have another ingredient in it that you may not have heard of before. This is known as resveratrol. It might sound like a strange name but in reality it seems to have a positive effect on the good type of cholesterol we carry in our bodies. It might also be able to reduce the chances of getting a blood clot and also to keep our arteries healthier for longer.
Studies are still going on to explore the health benefits of red wine. But in reality many people look to the Mediterranean diet to get clues as to how this wine helps people remain fit and healthy over the course of their lives. Most people will realize that it is not just red wine that does this – it is a combination of many different things. But the wine certainly seems to play a role too.
It should be remembered that just a small amount of the wine should be consumed as part of a healthy daily diet. A small glass is sufficient to get the benefits that come along with the wine, and if you were to drink too much you could end up consuming many more calories than you might think.
So if you are thinking about taking on a healthy diet and you were dreading the idea of giving up that glass of red wine, don’t worry. It might actually benefit you more if you carry on drinking it.
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Growing Grapes For Wine – Healthy Grape Vines For a Great Wine
Posted onIf you are a gardening enthusiast or a wine lover, growing grapes for wine may be an exciting activity for you. Making your own wine is indeed a good idea. You must remember though your backyard grapes may not be the variety that is great for wine making, thus if you want to venture into growing grapes for wine, here are some important tips that you may consider.
Choosing your wine grape
One main factor in making best wines, of course, is having the best quality of grapes. The variety of your grape vines should be the first consideration. Choose a type that is great for wine making and pick a variety that can thrive well with the climatic condition of your area. Most often, grapes grown healthily on areas with hot and dry summer and mild winters, as very low temperatures during winter can kill the grape vines.
Choosing your location
Make sure to choose a location that there is plenty of sun. This will in the proper ripening of the fruits that will contribute also to the taste of your wine. Other major considerations to take note in growing grapes for wine making include the soil, the topography, the fertilizers and the climatic conditions of your area. Planting your grape vines can also be done in slopes because these areas have good drainage and prevent the roots to be soaked with too much in water and that can freeze in winter. Slopes facing south are the best locations that you can get for growing grapes for wine as these areas will sure get good sunshine for your wine grapes. Bathing your vines with good sunlight helps a lot in the formation of sugars in fruits that become alcohol after fermentation. Beware of low lying areas too as these are prone to frosts that can damage your vines.
Disease and Pest Control
Like any other crop, growing grapes also involves monitoring especially for possible attack of pests and diseases. You can make use of pest attractants to drive pests away from the fruits. At mid summer when the fruits begin to swell and ripen, birds also begin to peck on the fruits, thus, before everything will be gone, you can put nets over the vines to stop them from feeding on the fruits. A gardening net would be a great one for this purpose.
Pruning for better fruits
Pruning your grape vines is also a factor that you should consider in growing grapes for wine, as this affects the production of good quality fruits. Pruning will help balance the production of fruits and prevent overbearing, which can lead to poor fruit quality. Aside from getting rid of messy vines, pruning also allows sunlight to nourish the vines well and helps maintain disease-free vines.
Harvesting your grapes
Harvesting the fruits at the right time is also important in growing grapes for wine making. It is not just enough also to look at the color of the fruits to determine if it is in its right ripeness for harvesting. Tasting the grapes is recommended. You can start harvesting your grapes if the seeds are dark or brownish and if the sugar level is just right. You can also make use of hydrometer to help you determine the sugar content of the grapes and if it is already right for harvesting.
Resveratrol and Red Wine – Want to Get Healthy?
Posted onResveratrol is a phytoalexin, a chemical compound that is found naturally in some plants. It is referred to as a phytoalexin because the plants produce the natural compound as an antibiotic substance to ward off fungi, bacteria and other pathogenic attacks. Resveratrol is found in red grapes, (skin, seeds and vines), in mulberries, raspberries, cranberries and blueberries, in peanuts, certain pine trees and also in the Japanese knotweed plant.
It is because of the fact that the compound has had an impact in the French people, making them have less coronary heart disease complications, and making them have healthy lifestyles that stirred the interest of many, hence it’s being manufactured as a natural nutritional supplement. Observers noticed that even though the French people ate a lot of fatty foods, they still recorded low cases of heart diseases, and they discovered it is because of the red wine that formed part of their diets.
It is however important to note that the resveratrol constituent in red wine is very minimal thus it might be the case of long term use of red wine. Perhaps the most common source of resveratrol is peanuts, although it is still in very low concentrations, but is much higher compare to certain berries. Studies show that using resveratrol will substantially reduce cases of memory loss, lengthen tolerance, fight aging and the most recent studies show that it can actually combat retroviruses like herpes simplex and HIV.
A roman saying goes like “In Vino Sanitas” which construes to mean “In wine there is health”. There is no doubt that there are abundant health benefits to be reaped from red wine. However, it might not be affordable to all, because low quality red wines will not contain substantial amounts of resveratrol. The reason why one would need resveratrol supplements which are manufactured with high concentrations of the compound.
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