For Health Benefits, Sip Your Wine Slowly
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Wine from long habit has become an indispensable for my health." Let's hope he savored each sip, because new research indicates that the health benefits of wine are absorbed in the mouth, and I am not talking about taste. Resveratrol, the powerful antioxidant found in red wine, is not absorbed in the lower digestive tract like many nutrients, but by the mucous membranes in the mouth. Savoring the wine, like a connoisseur, can increase the amount of the antioxidant that makes it into our bloodstream by 100 percent. The bottom line: don't gulp your wine. Not only is it uncouth, but it is unhealthy as well.
