Mon Docteur le Vin (My Doctor, Wine) Book

I picked this up for a dollar after splurging on a case of Italian reds for Bob for Christmas. (You know--we must do our research for Italy next summer.) Having just finished chapter four, it's been a dollar well-spent. I just want you to know that this is NOT a fad-diet book--the author states, in the second paragraph of chapter one, and again at the end of that same chapter that the Red Wine Diet "is a healthy eating plan that does not require you to drink wine or other alcoholic beverages to enjoy it's benefits." Whatever. I am enjoying discovering what it is about some red wines (not all) that seem to make them so beneficial to our health--and as well that foods like walnuts, pomegranates, cranberries, some dark chocolate (depending on how it's processed), some apples, and cinnamon have these same health properties.

And forget about resveratrol. (One would need to drink lethal doses to realize a significant health benefit.) (Huh???)

The secret--a special group of flavanoids called procyanidins, or, proanthocyanidins. The author is talking primarily about effects on vascular health here--procyanidin's effects on epithilium-dependent vasodilation (um, this is a good thing). Sardinia and a study of the Seventh-Day Adventists in California (also mentioned in The Blue Zones) are mentioned.

Recipes for procyanidin-rich foods are included, as well as a rating list for the most procyanidin-rich reds throughout the world.

Glad one of my New Years resolutions last year was to drink more reds--salut!