I enjoy an occasional glass or three of red wine. I recently stopped hating the taste of it, and I’d choose a glass of Merlot over a glass of Chardonnay any day. I’m not a wine connoisseur, by any means, but I know that I prefer the taste of red to white. I’ve been able to justify my consumption of wine thus far because of the antioxidants that it provides and the effect that it has on both good and bad cholesterols. Apparently, though, dark grape juice is a fine substitute for boosting flavonoids (antioxidants) and lowering low-density lipoproteins (bad cholesterol). The only area where grape juice seems to fall short is in the high-density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) department. Wine seems to be better at increasing good cholesterol. Still, grape juice seems like a better choice when you take into account the free radicals that alcohol tends to create.
It just so happens that I love grape juice more than most things, so I was pretty delighted to read the articles below. I know that one of these articles is ten years old and the other is five, but this is the first I’ve heard about grape juice providing almost all of the same benefits as wine. I’m not swearing off wine or anything, but I’ll probably drink grape juice more often than I’ve been drinking it.
There ya go:
Wine or Welch’s? Grape Juice Provides Benefits without Alcohol.
If anyone else has come across an article or two (perhaps a newer one?) about the benefits of wine compared with those of grape juice, then I’d be interested in reading them.
Filed under: food and drink, health and beauty, physical well-being
Tags: antioxidants, article, chardonnay, cholesterol, flavonoids, free radicals, grape juice, high-density lipoproteins, juice, low-density lipoproteins, merlot, red wine
