Customer Reviews

The Red Wine Diet

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This interesting book might have been more accurately titled "The Procyanidin Diet", but that would probably not help sales. Furthermore, it is not a weight loss book, or just a book about red wine.

Author and UK researcher Roger Corder makes a persuasive case in the book for the many health benefits of diet high in procyanidins, one of the phenols found in red wine, chocolate, apples, cinnamon and other plant sources. He gives specific recommendations for wines and foods, as well as recipes, that are high in procyanidins. It is possible to follow his recommendations without drinking any wine at all, but probably not as enjoyable.

Oddly enough, procyanidins are produced by plants in their skins and seeds for protection from rot and insects, and not for human benefit. Corder makes a convincing case that wine procyanidins are the solution to the "French Paradox" rather than the highly touted resveratrol; and their benefits to the human circulatory system have also been identified in certain red wine drinking populations in Sardinia, Crete, and Sicily, as well as Southwestern France. Other confirming evidence comes from the Kuna natives of Panama who drink large quantities of cocoa containing a similar dose of procyanidins, and who achieve the similar beneficial health effects.

Corder rates many red wines from * to ***** in order of their measured procyanidin content, with his highest ratings going to tannic and acidic wines such as tannat grape wines from the Madiran region of France. These wines tend to be the kind you want to drink with food. He suggests that two glasses of these highest rated wines give you 250-500 milligrams(mg) of procyanidins, his recommended dose per day for optimum health benefits. Since the procyanidins come from the grape skin and seeds, and they deteriorate over time, the highest concentrations are found in younger wines fermented for weeks in contact with the skins and seeds. As a general rule he found higher levels in Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

Corder also rates various foods in terms of his 4 oz glass of "good" procyanidin wine which contains about 60 mg. For instance:

2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder (non alkali processed)
1 Tsp. cinnamon powder
1 apple
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup cranberries
1.5 oz walnuts

All the above foods rate equivalent to Corder's "good" glass of red wine, so any four of them together would give you about 250 mg of procyanidins, his recommended minimum daily dose. Note that the estimate of the typical USA consumption of procyanidins is less than 100 mg per day, mainly from chocolate and apples. Corder argues that you should eat a diet with many sources of procyanidins because of the complexity of the chemistry and our incomplete knowledge of all the potential benefits.

Corder's book made me rethink the way I select wine and many foods.

The cover and subtitle of this book suggest that it is a shallow treatment of the health benefits of red wine that encourages daily alcohol consumption. This is misleading and does a disservice to the content. It is in fact a careful examination of what constitutes the health-promoting ingredient of red wine compared to other alcoholic beverages (a class of chemicals called procyanidins, it turns out - not resveretrol). The author then takes pains to explain how these plant products can be obtained from other sources (e.g. chocolate, apples), and to put their role in a balanced diet in perspective. There is even a final section of sample recipes to put into practice the nutritional advice he presents.
The author is a chemist by profession, and he writes like one. However, he makes his points in a clear, balanced way that avoids the self-promotional hype that so often taints popular books on health issues. He is obviously a wine lover himself, and the chapter comparing the procyanidin content of various red wine-producing countries and regions is exhaustive. A simple recommendation of the richest sources would have been more helpful to the non-connoisseur; he does eventually get around to this by focusing on the Madarin region of France. He decided to focus on this region because it contains the highest proportion of long-lived Frenchmen, and it is here that he seems to fall victim to the cardinal scientific sin of confusing an association with causality. The implicit conclusion is that it must be the procyanidin-rich wines of this region that result in the locals' longevity, but it may turn out to be some other, even non-dietary factor (maybe they live so long despite the wine!). However, the laboratory evidence he provides of procyanidins' beneficial effects on blood vessels is compelling and is at least a plausible mechanism for the effects he proposes. At the very least, this well-researched and thoughtfully written work will shed new light on the already widely-known virtues of the Mediterranean diet.

This book presents the evidence about red wine: that it is one of the healthiest things you can put in your body (in moderation, of course). The evidence has been piling up for decades (centuries) now, that red wine is very healthy, prevents heart disease and strokes, and might prevent cancer and diabetes. The island of Crete in Greece has some of the oldest people in the world, and very low heart disease. The diet consists of red wine at each dinner, drunk in moderation. The author presents lots of good advice on red wine, but also on diet in general. Highly recommended.

Roger Corder's new book provides solid laboratory evidence for the health benefits of red wine. The book is written in a readable style suited for the non-scientist interested in maintaining good health. The key product found in red wine which mediates this healthy effect particularly on the blood vessels of the heart is procyanidin. Dr. Corder has surveyed over 300 red wines from most of the world's wine regions and has awarded each a heart rating score from 1 to 5 hearts based on procyanidin levels. The book provides the reader with a list of foods and diets which are high in procyanidin as well.The book serves as a ready resource for anyone interested in locating wines and foods rich in procyanidin.

This book is a good one if you drink traditional (French) wines. It has lots of info on red wines from different areas of the world. If you are interested in only drinking traditional French red wines, you will like the book. For me, it was health benefits that got me looking into red wine. As an ER nurse, I see more heart attacks than I would prefer. Thought the "French Paradox" was interesting, but I was skeptical. Turns out, the more research I do, the more credible it appears. I also got another book, "The Longevity Factor", and there I read about muscadine wine. This is popular in the Southeast, but not elswhere as the grapes will not grow anywhere other than the Southeast. Muscadine was used for 8,000 years by native americans. Wines were made in the early 1500's in the New World as explorers found this grapes growing wild all over the coastal areas of the Southeast. Turns out, muscadine grapes have far more health benefits than traditional red wines. I have read anywhere from 10X to 40X the amount of resveratol compared to traditional red wines. Bowman Gray School of Medicine (Wake Forest) did a study this past year on Natures Pearl, a muscadine seed supplement, and results should be out any time now. What I have seen so far looks very promising. A cardiology professor led the study and it is to be printed any time now for the public. Harvard School of Medicine showed the anti-oxidants in muscadine wine increased mice life expectancy 30%, even with high fat diets. Reductions in LDH (bad cholesterol) and increases in HDL (good cholesterol) were significant. An independent lab in Wareham, Mass, Biotech, said that the muscadine seed had more resveratol in it than anything they had ever tested. I have contacted researchers from Miss State, Florida Univ, and other state level organizations and all my info says the same thing. Muscadine wine/grapes are far superior to all other red wines in regards to health benefits. It is perplexing to me. Why is so little said about this on a national level? Why do most the books and articles speak only of red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, etc..? Two thoughts on the subject. One, muscadine grapes only grow in the Southeast of the US and are just a well kept secret to the rest of the world. Two, the market for French, California, Argentina, Austalian, wines is so great, and is experiencing a surge as people start drinking red wine for health reasons, that it would hurt the sales of these wines if people found out that $7-15/bottle muscadine wine was more healthy. I don't know if the author of this book kept muscadine wines out of the book for this reason, or if he just is not aware of the benefits (and superiority) of muscadine wine. Reason I give this book two stars is that with the amount of research the author did, I can't believe he did not know about muscadine wine. Not one single word in the book mentions it. For a book thats sole purpose is to educate people about the health benefits of red wine, I found this unacceptable. Perhaps I would go so far as to say, pushing an agenda. His preference for rich and dark French wines is overtly obvious in the book. Luckily for me, this is not the only resource I checked into. Perhaps this is a case of "sweet wines" not being given any credibility. Perhaps they just don't cost enough. Not sure. But I do know that there is no way I will be drinking the firm tannin, astringent, and expensive french red wines after the information I have discovered recently. I will be taking a Natures Pearl supplement in the morning, putting a little muscadine jelly on my toast, and having a wonderful glass of sweet southern made muscadine wine with my evening meal. I encourage anyone to research this area further. I suspect you, like me, will be surprised at what you find out. As a sidenote, Smith-Glaxo-Kline (huge pharmaceutical corporation) recently payed 3/4 of a BILLION dollars for a study on resveratol. I suspect the "Fountain of Youth" pill will be coming out in the next 5 years or so. Do some reading, dig a little beneath the surface and get past the hype of French red wines. Google "muscadine health" for starters. Below is a link that will provide some great info if the link doesn't break. Look under the "Muscadine Wine and Health" section. In that same section, there is a pdf file "MD News" that I found very interesting. If the link breaks, you can find this info on the North Carolina Commerce website.

http://www.nccommerce.com/en/TourismServices/NurtureWineAndGrapeIndustry/MuscadineGrapes/

I learned about The Red Wine Diet in one of those magical coincidences that make life more interesting. We'd decided to go to Pau France but could not find accommodation we liked and instead decided upon Madiran, France which was 45 minutes away. As it turned out, the Gite (Le Prielle) was run by an English couple, both of whom are very knowledgeable on the region's wines. Our first day there, Simon took us on a tour of some of his favorite wineries in the region and mentioned Corder's book. Although somewhat pricey, the wines were very good. According to Simon, the vines were brought to Madiran by monks in the 11th Century and winemakers still use many of the traditional methods to make wine which includes mashing the grapes with seeds in and leaving the seeds in the mash for a period. The only other region in which wine is made this way according to him was Sardinia but I have not investigated this.

As I understand it, proanthocyanidins leeches out of the seeds into the juice. But even wines that are not made this way can contain proanthocyanidins if they are made traditionally, without fining (with compounds like eggyolks) and are not heavily filtered. A good indication of this is the sediment found in the bottom of the bottle.

A powerful antioxidant, proanthocyanidin enhances the immune system and lowers cholesterol levels which explains why the French have low levels of heart disease even though the diet is rich in fat (lots of duck and fois gras etc.) I was aware of these benefits of antioxidants after reading a University of Guelph study that showed reduced levels of cholesterol in subjects who participated.

I believe this book is an essential reference for anyone serious about wine (and health). I also learned something new reading other reviews of this book. D. Hall referred to muscadine wines grown in southeastern US that also contain high levels of resveratrol. A medical paper is available on the topic at http://goo.gl/WNMTG or visiting "[...]' " and clicking the "MD News article on Muscadines and health" link.

By starting with red wine, then identifying the compounds in red wine that are responsible, and then showing that other foods containing the same compounds can have the same health benefits, Dr. Corder helps his readers step away from fad science onto solid science. In passing he trashes resveratrol (p36-7) - a further service. As with all one-topic books, this one is fluffed out to book length by including general nutrition & health information and about 50 pages of recipes. For the hard-core scientists there are about 20 pages of references.

Great book for wine lovers and those who had their doubts about the benefits of including wine in their everyday diet. This book includes a very informative medicinal history of wine and the true benefits of its ingredients. Great health advice, menu plans and delicious recipes fill this easy to read book. Highly recommend to everyone!

The Red Wine Diet is an excellent summary of the health aspects of drinking red wine. It explains Resveratrol (the ingredient in red wine that is beneficial)in layman language. It helps one to understand why the French with their fatty diet can still be healthy.

This book is unique, well written and enlightening! Unfortunately, the wines that are most healthy are pricey, hard to locate locally, and of unknown taste. For me, the best compromise is to purchase wines locally that you like, and drink plenty of Welsh's purple grape juice and Ocean Spray cranberry juice.