Bottle of Wine, Fruit of the Vine

There seems to be debate with most things regarding health. Diet or no diet. Eggs or no eggs. Stretching or no stretching. Another things that people debate pretty heavily is alcohol or no alcohol, specifically wine or no wine. And even more specific, red wine or no red wine. Well, the fact remains, people like wine. Some people like us even love it.

I drink it because 1.) I love it and 2.) because there is enough evidence for me to have made the decision that it's good for me. I did some research last semester for my Healthy Aging class where I studied a book called The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest. It discussed five different places on the globe labeled as "blue zones" - places where a high percentage of people frequently live to be over 100 years old. Surprisingly, Nacogdoches, TX is not a blue zone. There is one blue zone in the United States - Loma Linda, CA.

Venn diagram of three blue zones

One of the blue zones is Sardinia, Italy. And it is believed that one of the contributing factors to people living so long there is Sardinian wine. In short, it has to do with the quality of the soil in Sardinia where a particularly dark grape grows in abundance. A chemical in this dark grape called a polyphenol is thought to be very healthy for blood, arteries, and heart health.

As with everything, moderation is key. The people of Sardinia aren't binge drinking with the delicious wine they produce. They drink much smaller glasses than we typically drink, but they drink it everyday.

Adult signature required
for wine deliveries

That being said, we received a shipment of twelve bottles of wine yesterday. The UPS man came to the door and asked me if I was 21 to sign for the shipment. I told him that I was and asked if he needed to see my ID. He reply was, "Nah...I don't really care". Good to know that UPS is keepin' it legal.

Two Christmases ago, my brother got us a really nice wine rack. Our kitchen table also has a wine rack built into the table which can hold twelve bottles. Every spot on the wine rack that my brother got us now happily full.

Drinking to our health