Antioxidant Booster
It is the ultimate French paradox.
How is it that the French eat the richest foods on the planet but
remain so slim? The answer may lie not in what they eat, but what
they drink. Red wine it seems is a rich source of antioxidants – a
natural antioxidant booster if ever you find any. So no matter how
much you eat, as long as you consume enough red wine with it, you
should be okay.
But, there’s a catch. It’s only red
wine. Not white. Definitely not white.
Studies have shown that the amount of
antioxidant boosters in red wine is higher in comparison to those
present in white wine. It has something to do with the fermentation
process they say and also on the type of grapes used. Grapes used
for making red wines have naturally high levels of antioxidant
boosters which in turn make red wines great antioxidant boosters.
But, new information has just been
released. Researchers in Israel say they have developed a method to
increase antioxidant booster content of white whine so that it has
health benefits similar to red wine.
Traditionally, white wine is made
without the use of grape skins, which provide for their crunchy,
thin taste. Red wine on the other hand is made by fermenting the
juice along with the skins. Grapes, like any typical fruits, have
the most concentration of its antioxidant boosters found in its
skin. So because, white wine doesn’t include grape skins, it makes
sense then that it doesn’t have as much antioxidant boosters as red
wine. The skins give red wine its coloration and contain the highest
concentration of polyphenols, which are potent antioxidant boosters.
The research theory was that antioxidant booster capacity of white
wine could increase by extracting more grape skin polyphenols during
processing.
In order to conduct their research on
antioxidant boosters of white wine, the researchers obtained whole
squeezed grapes. They let these incubate for up to 18 hours in the
presence of alcohol before they removed the skins. The effect was a
significant increase of white wine polyphenols up to six times the
normal level. The antioxidant booster exhibited antioxidant activity
similar to that of red wine.
The study used about a quarter of the
polyphenol content found in red wine. But even so, the researchers
will able to find that even at one-quarter, white wine polyphenols
exhibited the same antioxidant booster activity. This suggests that
of the two wines used for study, white wine contains those varieties
of polyphenosl that have higher antioxidant booster activity
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Antioxidants
