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A New Twist on Wine and Food Pairings
This Week's Tips
Partial to having a glass of wine now and then? No problem. Just have it with a bite to eat.
Here's why. You'll still get the disease-fighting compounds in the wine, but by pairing it with food you may help protect your throat from the potentially cell-damaging alcohol.
Red, White, and Barrett's
Drinking alcoholic beverages has long been associated with esophageal troubles like acid reflux disease. That much hasn't changed. But researchers were surprised in a new study to see that the moderate wine drinkers -- those who drank about a glass of wine per day -- were less likely to develop Barrett's esophagus, a condition closely associated with acid reflux disease. Why the contradiction? Might have something to do with the way wine is typically consumed. By pairing it with food, the body still benefits from the health-boosting compounds, but the food offers throat cells some protection from the alcohol. Read up on all the pros and cons of alcohol consumption with this in-depth article.
Wine Wonders
The decision to drink alcohol is a personal one. You may have risk factors or medical conditions that make it unwise -- like chronic heartburn. And although some research suggests moderate wine consumption provides cardiovascular benefits, they only kick in at a certain age (after age 40 for men and after menopause for women). If your age or your health makes alcohol a no-no, there are a few ways you can get smaller amounts of the healthy compounds in wine:
- Drink wine without the alcohol. Grape juice fits the bill. Here's how it provides some of the same health benefits of wine.
- Eat up. There are lots of foods that contain resveratrol, like blueberries. Find out what other phenols blueberries contain.
- Go straight to the source. Wine gets its resveratrol from grapes. Discover how the resveratrol in grapes may help with back pain, too.
Is the health news surrounding alcohol giving you whiplash? The YOU Docs explain it all here.
