Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Explaining Wine's Health Benefits

Finally, a dab of insight as to how the famed "French paradox" (wherein the effects of fatty food are mitigated by ample wine tippling) works, courtesy of The Economist. This doesn't explain wine's helpful effect re: obesity or high cholesterol, but it's a start.
Posted by at
Labels: ,

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The answer, Dr Kanner has found, lies in the stomach itself. The digestion of high-fat foods such as red meat releases oxidising toxins. One in particular, called malondialdehyde, is implicated in arteriosclerosis, cancer, diabetes and a host of other serious diseases.

1/ Fat digestion takes place in the intestine, not the stomach (lipase is produced by the pancreas and requires the alkaline environment provided by the bile.)

2/ Aldehydes are reducing agents (they oxidize spontaneously to the corresponding acids.)

3/ Red meat is less a "high-fat food" than avocados, tree nuts, peanuts, olives, linseed, fatty fish, all of which are supposed to be "good for you..."

Color me dubious.

July 8, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Jim Leff said...

Note that Pierre Jelenc is Chowhound's longtime official technical advisor. His scientific knowledge is unusually broad, but he is particularly reliable on food/drink issues.

To comply with his request, please join me in coloring him dubious.

July 8, 2008 at 2:49 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Blog Archive