Champagne has been very popularly associated with celebrations and as Charles Dickens rightly said, “Champagne is one of the elegant extras in life.” This bottle of sparkly wine gets a call for in every moment of life, joyous and sad. But this “taste of star” can offer much more than just livening up special occasions.
We have already come to know some benefits of drinking champagne in the past, giving us all the more reasons to raise a glass. Champagne contains less calories compared to most of the other alcoholic beverages. It’s actually healthy for your heart, much like a glass of wine is. It’s also known to boost your mood. But now, research has found a whole new facet of champagne’s benefits.
Champagne can help keep your memory in tact.
Recent research at the University of Reading has shown that, when it comes to champagne, one to three glasses a week may counteract memory loss linked with aging and protect the brain from degenerative brain disorders such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s.
The research found that the phenolic compounds present in champagne favorably altered a number of proteins associated with storage of memory in the brain. With age, many of these proteins are known to deplete, thus making memory storage less efficient.
The red grapes, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, used in the Champagne along with the white grape, Chardonnay, contain high level of phenolic compounds, as highlighted by the research.
Champagne can reduce symptoms of brain aging.
The compounds help slow the losses of such proteins and prevent cognitive losses arising out of brain aging. The grapes that deserve all the credit for helping the champagne to prevent brain diseases and memory loss, are required by law to be grown in designated plots.
Professor Jeremy Spencer of the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading said, “These interesting results demonstrate for the first time that the moderate intake of champagne is very likely to influence cognitive operative, such as memory. Such observations have before been stated with red wine, due to the actions of flavonoids present within it.”
Champagne is beneficial for your health—as long as it’s consumed in moderation.
Professor Spencer further emphasized that the findings of the research suggested a moderate or low intake of one to two glasses a week. This was in tune with the researchers’ intention to encourage a responsible approach to alcohol consumption, according to him.
The research was conducted on animals and its results have not yet been confirmed on humans. Dr. David Vauzour, a researcher on this study however predicts that as the results have been verified with other polyphenol-rich foods, such as blueberry and cocoa, moderate champagne intake should also bring similar outcomes.
Several health benefits of controlled champagne drinking were also highlighted in a previous research report released at the University of Reading. That research however, suggested two glasses of champagne a day to be good for heart and blood circulation. The researchers found that drinking champagne daily in moderate amounts caused improvements in the way blood vessels function.
The findings from the two research works are, however, different, but it is interesting to observe that there are certainly some health benefits of moderate champagne intake, as both these research reports highlight.
Champagne’s minerals are thought to be what make it so healthy.
Interestingly, Mireille Guiliano, author of the best-seller “French Women Don’t Get Fat,” also agrees to the remarkable health benefits of champagne and believes that champagne’s health benefits primarily owe to its trace minerals such as magnesium, potassium, zinc, and lithium (a natural mood regulator).
Unlike F. Scott Fitzgerald’s statement on his love for champagne i.e. “Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right,” it certainly requires that we consider the findings of the research discussed above. A very vital thing to notice in the findings is that it might have validated the intake of champagne but it does so only in a moderate amount. Therefore, when the champagne is symbolized with “Good Life,” it means so with all due care to one’s health and also the happiness of others.
Featured photo credit: Dasha Petrenko via shutterstock.com
