Except for my grandfather, who mixed a glass of brandy with each meal, no one in my family is used to have a drink with lunch.
Sad, I know.
There are a couple of occasions where we celebrate something, and then I see my parents have a drink, but besides that, alcohol isn't on our menu. It's a habit I guess.
You can only imagine how surprised my mother was when I discovered the charms of beer at the age of 16 and came home in a very spectacular edition. Well, that's a completely different story.
Since every article that I've posted here has some kind of health and educational note in it, this won't be an exception.
Let's begin.
"It's good for my stomach. It helps me digest."
An excuse for the elderly to have a glass or two with lunch. But is it really good for you?
No. Alcohol definitely feels good before meals and definitely accelerates digestion. However, as alcohol is a very good solvent, it dissolves the protective mucus on the surface of the stomach that protects the stomach from digesting itself. Hence, there is a common occurrence of stomach ulcers in people who hold this habit.
So what can we do? Just have a drink while you're eating or after a meal. In this way, the drink will mix with food and will not have much contact with the mucous membrane of the stomach, and will continue to accelerate and improve digestion.
As far as wine goes, you've probably heard that French wines are the best. Hence, a phenomenon known as "French paradox" arises.
The French eat everything. Very oblivious and spicy meals and, very important for the sake of this article, very greasy meals. When I say very greasy, I mean the butter and the worst trans fats that adhere to the arteries like a moth to a flame.
They should just die from heart disease with incredible speed, right? That's right, but that's not the case.
In fact, they even have one of the lowest stops of cardiovascular diseases in the world. Paradoxal, right?
This is because French people often have a glass of wine with their greasy meals. What a great nation, right?
Wine is an incredible drink. It contains many antioxidants that nourish our appearance, our mental abilities, but also regulate all these harmful effects of trans fats in our body.
So should you drink a glass of wine at lunch? Yes, you should.
This does not mean that you need to poison yourself with trans fats and fast food, nor does it mean that you need to drink a bottle of wine daily. But one glass per day will fix your blood count (unless you are suffering from some other illness in which case you need to consult your doctor), lower your LDL cholesterol level, preserve your mental abilities and, ultimately, preserve your appearance and reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
In vino veritas!
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