The Wine Diet [Paperback]

This interesting book might have been more accurately titled "The Procyanidin Diet", but that would probably not help sales. Furthermore, it is not a weight loss book, or just a book about red wine.

Author and UK researcher Roger Corder makes a persuasive case in the book for the many health benefits of diet high in procyanidins, one of the phenols found in red wine, chocolate, apples, cinnamon and other plant sources. He gives specific recommendations for wines and foods, as well as recipes, that are high in procyanidins. It is possible to follow his recommendations without drinking any wine at all, but probably not as enjoyable.

Oddly enough, procyanidins are produced by plants in their skins and seeds for protection from rot and insects, and not for human benefit. Corder makes a convincing case that wine procyanidins are the solution to the "French Paradox" rather than the highly touted resveratrol; and their benefits to the human circulatory system have also been identified in certain red wine drinking populations in Sardinia, Crete, and Sicily, as well as Southwestern France. Other confirming evidence comes from the Kuna natives of Panama who drink large quantities of cocoa containing a similar dose of procyanidins, and who achieve the similar beneficial health effects.

Corder rates many red wines from * to ***** in order of their measured procyanidin content, with his highest ratings going to tannic and acidic wines such as tannat grape wines from the Madiran region of France. These wines tend to be the kind you want to drink with food. He suggests that two glasses of these highest rated wines give you 250-500 milligrams(mg) of procyanidins, his recommended dose per day for optimum health benefits. Since the procyanidins come from the grape skin and seeds, and they deteriorate over time, the highest concentrations are found in younger wines fermented for weeks in contact with the skins and seeds. As a general rule he found higher levels in Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

Corder also rates various foods in terms of his 4 oz glass of "good" procyanidin wine which contains about 60 mg. For instance:

2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder (non alkali processed)
1 Tsp. cinnamon powder
1 apple
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup cranberries
1.5 oz walnuts

All the above foods rate equivalent to Corder's "good" glass of red wine, so any four of them together would give you about 250 mg of procyanidins, his recommended minimum daily dose. Note that the estimate of the typical USA consumption of procyanidins is less than 100 mg per day, mainly from chocolate and apples. Corder argues that you should eat a diet with many sources of procyanidins because of the complexity of the chemistry and our incomplete knowledge of all the potential benefits.

Corder's book made me rethink the way I select wine and many foods.

The cover and subtitle of this book suggest that it is a shallow treatment of the health benefits of red wine that encourages daily alcohol consumption. This is misleading and does a disservice to the content. It is in fact a careful examination of what constitutes the health-promoting ingredient of red wine compared to other alcoholic beverages (a class of chemicals called procyanidins, it turns out - not resveretrol). The author then takes pains to explain how these plant products can be obtained from other sources (e.g. chocolate, apples), and to put their role in a balanced diet in perspective. There is even a final section of sample recipes to put into practice the nutritional advice he presents.
The author is a chemist by profession, and he writes like one. However, he makes his points in a clear, balanced way that avoids the self-promotional hype that so often taints popular books on health issues. He is obviously a wine lover himself, and the chapter comparing the procyanidin content of various red wine-producing countries and regions is exhaustive. A simple recommendation of the richest sources would have been more helpful to the non-connoisseur; he does eventually get around to this by focusing on the Madarin region of France. He decided to focus on this region because it contains the highest proportion of long-lived Frenchmen, and it is here that he seems to fall victim to the cardinal scientific sin of confusing an association with causality. The implicit conclusion is that it must be the procyanidin-rich wines of this region that result in the locals' longevity, but it may turn out to be some other, even non-dietary factor (maybe they live so long despite the wine!). However, the laboratory evidence he provides of procyanidins' beneficial effects on blood vessels is compelling and is at least a plausible mechanism for the effects he proposes. At the very least, this well-researched and thoughtfully written work will shed new light on the already widely-known virtues of the Mediterranean diet.

This book presents the evidence about red wine: that it is one of the healthiest things you can put in your body (in moderation, of course). The evidence has been piling up for decades (centuries) now, that red wine is very healthy, prevents heart disease and strokes, and might prevent cancer and diabetes. The island of Crete in Greece has some of the oldest people in the world, and very low heart disease. The diet consists of red wine at each dinner, drunk in moderation. The author presents lots of good advice on red wine, but also on diet in general. Highly recommended.

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