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Polyphenols are natural plant drive compounds that are typically rich in fruits and vegetables
and their derived products such as wine.
They are commonly associated with antioxidant benefits
that people think of in wine, chocolate, apples, etc.
More recently the evidence is really suggesting that the ability of polyphenols to protect the immune or
improve health or promote optimal health relate more to their ability to improve blood flow
and promote healthy vascular systems as well as both the ability to modulate oxidative stress,
so antioxidant benefit, if you will, but also inflammatory stress in the body.
Both of those processes are associated with lots of chronic and degenerative diseases including
heart disease, Alzheimers, diabetes, cancer, etc.
There are for example, our studies that have shown the evidence that moderate wine consumption
in certain populations in fact is associated with longevity, lower risk of
certain chronic diseases including heart disease for example.
Based on that, moderate wine consumption may in fact be a healthy activity
that one could engage in.
I don't know if I'm ready to tell you to consume one glass, two glasses, four glasses, etc.
but I think that we're going to be there at a certain point in the future
where we can make better recommendations.
So in grapes we see polyphenols throughout the grape but primarily you see it concentrated
in the skins and in the seeds.
Typically where we see a lot of polyphenol content would be for example
in wine that has a lot of contact with the skins.
So very heavy red wines, tannic red wines as they are called.
However, white wines also contain a significant amount of polyphenol components.
It really depends a little bit on variety, but in general
you can still get polyphenol compounds from white wines.
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