Used in the past as tonic and by popular medicine, a few scientific research studies bear out that wine can be a key element to bolster up health and fight off a number of diseases

Though some people tend to label those who sip at wine or spirits as lovers of the pleasures of Bacchus –the Greek god of wine- it’s been scientifically demonstrated that those who drink this kind of beverage with moderation can actually see their health improve.

In ancient times, Greek and Roman warriors heading for the battlefields, or sailors out on the sea, used to carry a boot of wine with them as an irreplaceable foodstuff and superb tonic that were meant to soothe the harshness of the military campaign. As far back as in the Iliad and the Odyssey –two pieces of Greek classic literature that have lived out entire generationsthere are stories about the use of wine in the battles. Even old king Priam, the father of Hector, rinsed his son’s wounds with wine as he fell next to the walls of Troy in a deadly combat with the invincible Achilles.

Furthermore, as Emilio Salgari tells us in his celebrated novel Captain Storm, it was wine, together with olive oil, what made the hungry residents of Famagusta, in Cyprus, get by one of the longest sieges in history –nearly a whole yearuntil the army of Sultan Selim II eventually took over the village.

The bottom line is that wine is more than a beverage. It’s penciled in by many sages as a foodstuff and a major medication cazable of reducing risks of heart attacks and slashing chances of coronary ailments. White wine, for instance, serves as blood pressure reducer and helps people keep hypertension at bay. In addition, as wine gets into the human body it triggers a metabolic reaction to alcohol intake through vessel-expanding flavonoids that, at the same time, capture free radicals and turn them into antioxidants.

As Cuban sommelier Yamir Peregrino explains in his book My Gourmet Passion, wine is good to prevent cancer and the emergence of malign cells. It’s been found that white wine helps fight back cancerous cells lodged in pulmonary alveolus.

Quite recently –the author goes on- the industry has made a wine for people suffering from diabetes, produced by Bodegas Vinos de la Cruz in Uruguay, that’s stripped of all sugars (fructose, sucrose and glucose). This is a completely organic wine with extremely low levels of carbohydrates. And to top it all off, wine is armed with other functionalities that can even be used to improve a visit to… the beach.

Stunned? Read this: according to a new scientific research study, a polyphenolic compound called reverastol can be used in making a new kind of tan lotion for your summer trip since it helps prevent burns caused by prolonged exposure to sunrays.