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While it has been shown statistically that wine drinkers tend to have healthier life styles are these just incidental factors related to socioeconomic and educational status or are these health factors integrally related to wine consumption? Is there any connection between a healthier life style and the consumption of wine?
Let us explore why wine consumption might lead to a healthier diet. The taste of good wine is based upon acid. The lack of taste in bad wine has to do with lack of acids. These are called fat wines. Nearly any table wine has some amount of acid in it. While imparting flavor these acids also assist in the digestion of food. A healthy body needs acid to break down food and liquid as an aid to digestion. If the wine provides some of the acids then the stomach doesnÕt have to work quite so hard to digest the food. If however a diet contains no acid and the food is not chewed very well because it has been gulped down in a fast food stand then the digestive system must work much harder. It gets used to working harder because of the lack of assistance and poor foods.
Poor foods are processed foods. Processed foods are not fresh. Because of this they are missing many of the trace minerals and elements that are necessary for a body operating at maximum capacity. Further most processed foods lack antioxidants. Remember that a major feature of the healthful Mediterranean diet was fresh produce. Fresh produce, as with tea, grains, seeds and wine, is high in the death fighting antioxidants.
Fresh produce like wine is also high in acids. For a stomach that is already producing loads of acids because it rarely gets fresh produce or wine this extra acid causes stress rather than helping, causing indigestion. Thus the health-giving fresh produce causes nausea to those unaccustomed to the acids.
The human system is incredibly malleable - It can convert nearly any diet, no matter how poor into something that will sustain the life force. Of course a diet that is inadequate will lead to disease and premature death, but poor food can sustain a body for decades before a terminal breakdown occurs. The body adapts to diet by producing and storing the fluids necessary for digestion based upon consumption. If someone eats a lot of meat then the meat acids are developed and generated. If someone consumes a lot of vegetable then vegetable acids are generated. If someone consumes a lot of processed food then his or her body develops the acids necessary to digest this food. If someone who has never eaten meat has a hamburger, they might go into convulsions or die because their body hasnÕt developed the stomach acids necessary to digest the meat. Similarly those who donÕt eat much fresh produce will get an upset stomach after eating an apple because their system hasnÕt adapted to produce. This is true with nearly every consumable. Those who havenÕt consumed much alcohol will get drunk more easily; those who havenÕt eaten much fried food will get nauseous on poor quality fish and chips. Basically the digestive system adapts itself to the dietary momentum.
Under a similar mechanism those who consume large quantities of fast food almost crave it if there is a relative shortage. Similarly those who consume large amounts of produce will crave it when deprived. The organs have produced a certain complex of fluids that are meant to digest the food and drink that are regularly consumed. These fluids need to be used. Therefore the System above all attempts to maintain regularity. It makes one sick when this regularity is interrupted with something new. It makes one crave those things that have been consumed regularly to maintain the regularity. This is why change is so hard. This is why change is almost unnatural.
ŅWhy change, if it causes discomfort?Ó you might ask. To avoid disease and premature death, which is the consequence of a poor diet. Remain the same and avoid short term stress while heading inevitably towards a long term break down. Therefore people who have a diet and lifestyle that will lead to some degenerative disease followed by a premature death, or a sickly life, have the option of ŌnaturallyÕ following this path to its unnatural end. Or they can unnaturally change their lifestyle, and follow a different path to a natural end.
It takes work to change direction because there is an acceleration, while it takes no work to maintain the same direction of patterns because it is a constant velocity. Therefore the path of least resistance is to continue eating the foods that youÕve been eating your whole life because your body is set up to handle that diet. The unnatural way is to change to a more healthful life style. This takes work, which is based upon force.
ŅI grew up on Fast Food and Soda. They make me feel good and comfortable. Why shouldnÕt I continue eating them? Fresh produce makes me sick. IÕm a Taoist. I believe in the path of least resistance. Flow like water, downhill.Ó