“Wine from long habit has become indispensable for my health.”  Thomas Jefferson also declared that “good wine was necessary to life.” Jefferson echoed a sentiment long understood in the great cultures of Europe, as well as with the immigrants who came to this country and brought with them that essential understanding of wine: wine’s first purpose is for health. The Talmud proclaimed: “Wine is the foremost of all medicines: wherever wine is lacking, medicines become necessary.

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Wine was the first medicine.  For centuries religion played a significant role in promoting wine’s use for health. Paul the Apostle recommended drinking wine for the benefit of the stomach and digestion. Catholic monasteries regularly used wine for various medical treatments. So closely tied was the role of wine and medicine that the first printed book on the subject of wine was written by a physician, and it dealt with wine’s treatment of various medical illnesses, including even dementia.

Fortunately I remember that wine was the primary medicine for my Sicilian grandmother, Nana.  She refused all “pills” during her long disease-free life, only relying on wine and olive oil.  I have discussed this fact with other immigrant families; it was the identical experience for all. A German friend of mine also remembered his heritage and that his family drank wine three time a day – adults and children. This was common. Did they all know something then that we have lost now?  Most certainly.

Let’s step back, though, and understand why wine may be the most important food for your health.

Wine derives from grapes – let’s start there.

Grapes are known to be significant to cardiovascular health as well as possessing special powers as an antioxidant. Yet now another study, in fact a recent University of Michigan study, once again confirms these facts.

The study was performed at the University of Michigan’s Cardiovascular Center, and looked specifically at the phytochemicals present in white, red, and black grapes.  In testing laboratory rats over 18 weeks, they found that the test group which was given grape phytochemicals had lower blood pressure, better circulation, and less heart muscle damage than the control group.  It’s important to note that the control group was given a blood pressure drug instead.  The natural grape diets had far better results than using pharmaceuticals!  We must all pay attention to such evidence.

Prior to the test, all of the rats were on a high sodium diet which elevated their blood pressure.  It’s a known fact that hypertension, over time, can cause damage to the heart muscle.  Another remarkable aspect about the phytochemicals in grapes is that the researchers found they can actually stimulate a process in the genes that repairs the damage to the heart muscle due to the high blood pressure.  This has to be very significant to all of us!

There are two powerful antioxidants in grapes: grape seed extract and resveratrol.  The first is obviously found in the seeds of the grape, which most of us don’t consume when we eat fresh grapes.  The second, resveratrol, is found in the skin of red grapes, mainly.  Grape seed extract improves blood pressure, reduces inflammation, increases circulation, and reduces the effects of free-radicals in the cardiovascular system.  The antioxidants in grape seed extract are 20 to 50 times more powerful than Vitamin C and Vitamin E respectively. Resveratrol is sounding more and more like a miracle being intensely studied now for its anti-aging properties.  It can be convincingly argued that both grape seed extract and resveratrol are the foundation blocks for health and longevity and if consumed every day would be a health insurance policy to defend us against the “American” diet that is now forced upon us and which contains almost no natural nutrients at all.  This effect is evidenced in the alarmingly poor health results in this country.  One example: It is now widely reported that diabetes has reached epidemic status in the United States. Nearly 21 million Americans have the disease, and if current trends continue, 1 in every 3 children born in this century will develop diabetes in their lifetime. This is a social catastrophe; a result of our current food supply which barely qualifies as food and also because of our ignorance and the reckless corporate control of what we eat.

Let’s get back to grapes. You can buy grape seed or resveratrol extracts or better yet say eat three pounds of grapes a day, all year around.  It can be assured they will provide the benefit of the grape seed extract and the resveratrol, but the key — they HAVE TO BE GROWN IN A BIO-DYNAMIC, SUSTAINABLE GROUND in order to get the benefits – one proven to possess the full array of micro and macro nutrients – as nature intended.

I hear you say that it would be hard for you to eat three pounds a day all year around.  First of all grapes are seasonal – you could only get fresh tasty grapes a few months a year.  Also you would tire from eating three pounds of grapes or even two pounds each and every day.

But wait – there’s a better answer.  A bottle of wine a day or at least the two glasses that doctors recommend.  A BOTTLE OF WINE CONTAINS THREE POUNDS OF GRAPES.  Just think about that!  You don’t eat the seeds of the grapes when you eat the whole grape, but the seed extract is in the wine — the wine is better than eating the actual grapes.  Even the Roman legions knew they couldn’t carry three pounds of grapes, to be eaten every day, with them all over the Mediterranean. So that’s why they brought their wine. Rest assured they could drink a bottle a day, in fact they had to because they couldn’t trust the water. They drank wine instead of the water.

So Jefferson knew, the monks in the monasteries understood, my grandmother observed — that wine was first for health, because in effect it was the most dependable, most effective natural health supplement of all.  When the fruits and vegetables were no longer in season, the wine was there, probably providing even greater benefits.

Again, this is not the case with the vast majority of wine today, because the grapes are grown on destroyed soils and the health benefits of these grapes are suspect and certainly don’t end up in the wine.  This is true with our entire food supply.  The alarming and continuing decline of minerals in our soils is directly proportional to the frightening increase of disease in this county.

In regards to wine, a scientific chart reveals the mineral depletion story in this country’s vineyards.  The chart was compiled from research by Cal Poly University at San Luis Obispo and the University of California, Davis.   The lower graph — “most nutrients previously found in grapes, depicted in the bottom chart (Winkler et al, 1974)” contrasts stunningly with the upper graph from Carmody McKnight.  The chart substantiates one of the inquiries of the studies — the fact that nutrients in the soil end up in the wine (also providing the natural flavors) by way of the grape.  That is great news for wines deriving from mineral and nutrient rich soils, the wines that we all need to drink.  

The message?  Wine is best for your health.  But, please, know from where that wine originates.  The chance that wine has much mineral content at all is remote and speaks volumes that this greatest of all health drinks is now but a pleasant alcohol beverage.

Fortunately, not so with Carmody McKnight wine.  In fact, the wine from this vineyard possesses the greatest array of minerals ever recorded, partly due to the abundance of rare calcium montmorillonite in our soils. READ

Plants cannot manufacture minerals; like us they need to absorb a range of minerals for their own cell construction and reactions. When rain falls on mineral-rich soil, the minerals dissolve and the plants absorb them through their roots.

In the 1960’s, Professor Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel prizes, proved that there are over 60 deficiency diseases, some as debilitating as arthritis, others as well known as osteoporosis, which can be traced to mineral deficiencies alone. After further research, he summarized his revolutionary findings as: “You can trace every sickness, every disease and every ailment, to a mineral deficiency”

The concern about minerals is not just a concern in regards to health, although nothing is more important.  The decline of minerals results in fruits and vegetables without natural flavors.  A sublime revelation of nature’s grand design occurs when blueberry or grape or any fruit or vegetable is grown in mineral rich ground (not factory farmed).  They ALWAYS TASTE THE BEST!

À votre santé,

Article Source: Carmody McKnight