What is so special about wine? What is it that makes it potentially more protective against coronary heart disease, and perhaps other diseases, that other forms of alcohol?

In recent years, scientists have concluded without doubt that many human diseases such as heart disease, cancer and aging process is caused or stimulated by a ravenous group of chemicals called free radicals. These highly charged little villains prowl body and attack healthy cell membranes through a process that is called oxidation. In this scenario, there is however a knight in shining armor that jumps to rescue and purges these ever hungry little killers. The name of our crusader is antioxidants. Without getting too technical, oxidation process in our bodies is crucial for health, without it, for instance, we would not be able to extract energy from our food. But if there are too many free radicals in our bodies this can be harmful.

Our body has its own defenses against free radicals, in form of enzymes that are able to turn hungry little sharks into harmless water. However, sometimes our body’s natural defense mechanisms can’t cope. Other times, external events can cause huge increases of free radicals within our bodies, such as x-rays, cigarette smoke and exposure to toxic substances. At times, this surge of free radicals can swamp our defenses and illnesses such as radiation sickness may take place.

So what does all this have to do with heart disease?

Low density lipoproteins, commonly know as “bad” LDL, can penetrate and gather against inner walls of our arteries, under certain conditions, forming fatty streaks and plaque. Taken alone, LDL particles aren’t so dangerous it seems, however, when attacked by free radicals they turn into dangerous and somewhat aggressive cells, capable of actually penetrating and harming smooth inner walls of our arteries. This process is called oxidation. Oxidized LDL is known to be culprit in stimulating atherosclerosis, heart disease and stroke.

Antioxidants, as name suggests (anti-oxidants) can help stop oxidation process, which are results of free radicals doing their stuff. Most antioxidant research has been carried out on vitamins (A, E, beta carotene) but quite a lot of work has also been done on healthy benefits of red wine. While most research on red wine has been done in relation to coronary heart disease, it seems that benefits of wine don’t stop there.

Red wine and Coronary Heart Disease

The World Cancer Research Fund is only major national charity concerned with link between cancer and food, nutrition and lifestyle factors. Their report 'Food, Nutrition and Prevention of Cancer: a global perspective' gives guidelines consistent with those published by World Health Organisation, E.U. 'Europe against Cancer' initiative and other authoritative organisations. The idea of an 'anti-cancer diet' promotes prevention by strengthening immune system directly and has partly led to promotion of a 'five a day' campaign for fresh fruit and vegetables.

The intensification of agricultural practices has led to a decline of between 25% to 75% in levels of key mineral nutrients in farmed vegetables over last 60 years. There has also been a rise in farmed fruit sugar levels, so much so that some 'natural' fruit juices now contain as much sugar as a fizzy drink.

If we can source quality food, our cooking methods often destroy nutritional content. Studies show that fresh, uncooked vegetables strengthen immune system and increase resistance to many diseases. Cabbage placed in cold water and boiled loses about 75% of its vitamin C content. Similarly fresh peas cooked for only five minutes lose 20-40% of their Thiamine content and 30-40% of their vitamin C. About 50% of vitamin E is destroyed by frying or baking food.

Tests in Spain recently measured levels of flavonoids (a kind of antioxidant) left in fresh broccoli after it was cooked. The results show large differences in flavonoid content according to how broccoli was prepared. The cooking methods were:

· boiling - 66% loss · pressure-cooking - 53% loss of major antioxidant · steaming - minimal loss of antioxidants · microwaving - 97% loss of flavonoids

Scientists in Finland found that blanching and deep-freezing vegetables destroyed beneficial compounds. Blanching prior to freezing destroyed up to one-third of vitamin C content of vegetables and more was lost in storage. The healing properties of uncooked foods are being increasingly recognised in natural cancer therapies.

The more we let food industries create what we eat more likely we are to be at risk from diet related problems. In effect commercial interests of food manufacturers are systematically robbing unwary shoppers of health, and eventually life. The more control and information we have in sourcing pure foodstuffs, less at risk we are from dis-ease for nutritional reasons. One of first steps in finding a healthy diet is changing how and where we shop and sourcing foods we can trust. The supermarkets give us thousands of choices but few options. Try to find for example, one of many varieties of biscuits available that do not contain 'hydrogenated vegetable oil'.

Too much protein in a diet is also harmful to health and can promote cancer. Meat and sugar-rich diets are common in West. These are often overcooked or over processed. When cooked or processed foods are eaten our white blood cells (leukocytes) rush to intestine to help with digestion. As a result other parts of body may be left undefended from attack by germs and viruses after a heavily synthetic meal.