For years now, we've been praising the health benefits of red
wine, raising our glasses and toasting Merlot as bottles of white wine
sit in the corner, fermenting with jealously. Because red wine has been
known to have a positive impact on the human body, with particular
profits to the cardiovascular system, we drink it and we heart it.
Not
to be outdone by its colorful adversary, studies have recently found
white wine to be beneficial to health as well. While both red and white
wine aid in lung function, white wine has a more positive impact on lung
health.
According to a study by the American Thoracic Society, a
positive link between white wine and lung health was found for people
who drank between one and three glasses a day. These people possessed
overall better lung function than those who drank red wine, or other
alcoholic beverages. This study also took into account several other
variables such as the wine drinker's general health, age, and whether or
not they were a smoker.
Because white wine contains higher levels
of flavonoids, a group of plant substances known for their antioxidant
activity, researchers believe that white wine soaks up the toxins in the
blood, like a "mop and glo" for the thorax, reducing inflammation of
the airwaves in the process. This helps protect the lungs.
Drinking
white wine may also be beneficial because of the presence of free
radicals lurking in the human body. If antioxidants are the
"peacekeepers" of the chemical compound world, with their main goal
being to keep the body void of disease and destruction, free radicals
are the bad seeds, often caught red handed spraying graffiti of cancer
and illness on internal organs. Consumption of white wine, however,
possesses the ability to stop the creation of free radicals, taking away
their can of spray paint and leaving them enervated.
All of these
factors add up to better lung function, with each glass increasing
respiratory performance. According to a study at the University of
Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, one glass of white
wine produced 1.5% higher lung function. Three glasses of white wine
produced 3.0% higher lung function.
This is not to say that people
should be chugging gallons and gallons - huge amounts of white wine
won't give people the ability to breathe underwater - but drinking white
wine in moderation may make a human's lungs operate at a higher level
of performance. This can, on average, add one to three more years to a
person's life span.
With red wine bragging about its ability to
lower cholesterol and lower blood pressure, white wine has been left in
the shadows, unable to boast about a benefit of its own. But, with new
studies, people are learning that white wine may be as beneficial as
red, its benefits just involve a different organ. If our hearts belong
to red wine, our lungs belong to white, allowing both white wine
drinkers and bottles of overzealous Pinot Gris to breathe a little
easier. http://ezinearticles.com/?White-Wines-Influence-on-the-Lungs&id=266266
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