Let's All Drink Red Wine And Live

It's with a heavy heart that I am eating these days ...

Fate seems to be conspiring in ways that cause me to question what I eat. Every single little thing, including the various cocktail combinations of colourings and additives.

Coffee has been bad for us for years however, it may just be good for us now. I noticed this while trying to ignore reading the various pieces of research that are daily thrown at us in the news. The article invited me to, 'Consider this: At least six studies indicate that people who drink coffee on a regular basis are up to 80% less likely to develop Parkinson's, with three showing the more they drink, the lower the risk. Other research shows that compared to not drinking coffee, at least two cups daily can translate to a 25% reduced risk of colon cancer, an 80% drop in liver cirrhosis risk, and nearly half the risk of gallstones.

Coffee even offsets some of the damage caused by other vices, some research indicates. "People who smoke and are heavy drinkers have less heart disease and liver damage when they regularly consume large amounts of coffee compared to those who don't," says DePaulis. There's also some evidence that coffee may help manage asthma and even control attacks when medication is unavailable, stop a headache, boost mood, and even prevent cavities.

Good lord, who could have guessed?

Dairy products, the new evil ... and after our mothers spent years purusing and practicing the commonly-held belief that children needed dairy products to develop strong little bones, and for the various other health benefits they purportedly provided. My reading lately suggests that dairy products are considered the new evil, although remember this is a 'peripheral trying-not-to-focus sweep' through the newspapers, I try not to linger and study.

However, a friend recently forwarded an article about a woman with cancer, who reportedly gave up all dairy products, and began the associated close study of food labels for content, with the result that her cancer (after treatment) disappeared, surprising doctors. She and her husband were scientists trying to work out why Asian women avoided the same high rates of breast cancer suffered by Western women.

So butter ... my favourite dairy product, is clearly on this list of the new 'unclean' due to the excessive amount I tend to slather on my toast in the morning, but margarine; the wonderchild of the 70's or 80's, now heads the list of the most carcenogenic. What chance does any nation of bread-eaters stand? Clearly the Mediterranean diet has to be looked at, as I've noticed, while trying to ignore research into the properties of any food, that olive oil might be good for us, and then there's all those fresh vegetables ... the Turks showed me something of what was possible but I'd need a cook.

And then we come to red wine ... a personal favourite of mine, with it's many and varied medicinal properties. I have some very credible people with me on this one. Plato once said, "Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the Gods to man."

It has been proven that red wine contains a high number of antioxidants, and recent studies have shown that drinking one glass of red wine every day may have certain health benefits. (I hope that's a big glass, or perhaps it's a reference to a glass bottle ...). Research indicates that moderate red wine consumption may help protect against certain cancers and heart disease, and can have a positive effect on cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

Now, oddly enough, I'm quite happy to thoroughly research the benefits of consuming a daily ration of red wine ... particularly when you consider that the research into healthy eating would involve a seismic alteration in my consumption habits, with label-reading, special-recipe-book-buying, and application of thought ... to my body's daily needs, and that would surely tire me and create new and dangerous stresses on my clearly fragile person.

By the way, have you ever wondered why your mouth burns a little, you feel like you might be heading into an altered state of mind, and you get a headache the day after eating more than ... well, more than a few M&Ms ... those food colourings must lethal, that is, according to all research I've avoided reading about them.

Bon appetit!