Wine…drink a little, live longer?

Wine…drink a little, live longer?

Eating a Mediterranean diet is known to have a positive effect on heart health. It could also add years to your life.

Scientists have been trying to understand why. We're pretty sure it has to do with the total regime – lots of vegetables and fruits, nuts, whole grains, olive oil, small amounts of meat and a moderate amount of wine.

A recent Greek study tried to determine how each separate component of the diet contributed to a longer life.

Results showed that a moderate amount of wine with meals made the biggest contribution to lower mortality.

Eating a small amount of meat and a lot of vegetables had the next biggest influence.

Lots of fruits and nuts was next, followed by eating olive oil and legumes.

Eating a lot of grains and a small amount of dairy made a minimal contribution.

Fish consumption had an insignificant effect on longevity.

Before you reach for a bottle of wine, remember that this is just one study based on recall. It could just be that alcohol intake was easier to remember than vegetable intake. (How much wine did you drink last week? How many vegetables did you eat?)

Most important, it's still the cumulative effect of all of the components of the Mediterranean diet that made the biggest impact on health.

With so many wonderful kosher wines on the market, here's another reason to enjoy a small glass with dinner. But don't forget your vegetables!

Wine... sweet and dry. An Analogy

Here's an article I'd like to share with you from one of my favorite blogs,

Let My People Know http://essentialsteinsaltz.blogspot.com/

A Better Wine is Far More Difficult to Appreciate

"I have not found that accepting Judaism makes a life that is full of happiness and filled with sugar.

It is not like this.

It doesn't make, by definition, a more enjoyable life.

But it is a better life.

It is like drinking wine.

There are the sweet wines that even children appreciate.

They are very sweet.

They are possibly not wine, but they are sweet.

And red.

But a better wine is far more difficult to appreciate.

It is hard to teach about it.

You have to experience it to understand that it is not as sweet and not as red and not as cheap, but that it is still better.

It is something that one must educate himself about.

Good cooking is not always appreciated.

The better it is, the more you have to learn to appreciate it.

This is possibly true about every form of human achievement.

To appreciate something that is better needs an education.

It needs a certain amount of suffering.

But, when you get there, you understand it."

From Pebbles of Wisdom, by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (forthcoming)