American Worries

We understand there has been an article in the New York Times recently pouring scorn on the idea that moderate drinking may be quite good for you. The trouble is, they say, that there is no cause and effect - noone can say categorically that a little drink is good for you (though Guinness famously was!) - only that moderate imbibing is what healthy people happen to do.

This may be true, though the 'Mediterranean diet' would seem to make you more healthy when you move there, but of course it may just be that looking at the sea is good for you...

For us at WineDrop we tend to feel that there is no truth in the idea that Hamburger restaurants' 'supersize me' makes you fat. It is just that fat people tend to want to eat a lot...

Could it be that America's Puritan heritage is getting the better of them? It is true too that some alcohol companies have paid for scientific research which seems to come out in favour of 'a little alcohol', but surely if the piper were properly calling the tune they would have come out in favour of 'an awful lot'? When, however, you get down to the biochemistry of Dr Roger Corder of Queen Mary College London, and his research that the procyanidins present in grapes (particularly those varieties in Gascony and Sardinia which undergo long fermentations) are the most active polyphenols limiting the production of a protein that causes constriction of the arteries, there is less to argue about.

It doesn't prove that alcohol doesn't do you harm but it does prove that a constituent of an alcoholic beverage does you good! For us - net effect: happiness! Or as the Aussies would say "No worries".