Wednesday, September 24 2008

The Best Doctor

I swear, this looks just like the Grateful Dead concert I went to . . .

There's an old story they tell in Germany about the Archbishop of Trier. Poor old fellow was on his deathbed, and try as they might, the barbers could do nothing (hey, it was the 14th century: a haircut was probably preferable to anything else they tried). As a last request he was brought a glass of the local Bernkastel wine. He drank a glass, and suddenly perked up. He finished the bottle and sat up in bed. By the end of the week he had finished hogshead of the stuff and was riding horses and eating elephants raw. "This wine is the best Doctor", he declared. And so from then on they referred to their local wine as 'Bernkasteler Doctor'.

It's a charming story, and I'd probably get up from my sickbed if offered a bucket of good German Riesling, but it turns out there is more and more evidence coming to light that wine may in fact be even better for us than previously thought. According to the University of Missouri, red wine helps defend against food-borne pathogens.

Researchers Azlin Mustapha, associate professor of food science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, and Atreyee Das, a doctoral student in the food science program, are conducting on-going studies examining the inhibitory effects of numerous types of red wines, as well as grape juice, against pathogens and probiotic bacteria, which naturally reside in the intestinal tract and can be beneficial in combating, among other things, high cholesterol and tumors.

They found that red wines – Cabernet, Zinfandel and Merlot in particular – have anti-microbial properties that defend against food-borne pathogens and don’t harm naturally useful bacteria like probiotic bacteria.

E. coli, Salmonella Typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes and H. pylori were among the pathogens examined. E. coli and Listeria can be fatal. Mustapha said the most promising results involved Helicobacter pylori, which can be transmitted via food and water and is the main cause of stomach ulcers.

“Our study is a little different than those previously reported in the media. Those studies promote moderate red wine consumption for cardiovascular diseases,” she said. “We went a step farther and asked: If red wine is already good for cardiovascular diseases, what about food-borne pathogens? If you get a food-borne illness and drink red wine, will that help decrease the symptoms a little bit? This study showed that the four probiotics tested weren’t inhibited by red wines; the pathogens were.”

White with fish, red with meat . . . hmm.

Wow! Heck with antibiotics, bring me some Cabernet! Funny enough, this dovetails with a personal observation of mine. Folks who travel to foreign countries often complain of stomach upset and gastro-intestinal, um, 'distruption', but it doesn't seem to happen to me, and I eat from roadside stands, little trucks, and street vendors of all sorts. My secret is that I always drink the local booze with my meals: tequila with tacos, whisky with haggis, beer with hot dogs, Burgundy with Coq au Vin (man, those roadside Coq au Vin vendors have amazing cellars) and gin with my olives. My theory is that local food needs local potables to combat local microflora, and it seems to work.

What's even more interesting, however, is the connection between wine consumption and oral health. According to Hyun Koo, DDS, Ph. D., assistant professor of Dentistry within the Eastman Department of Dentistry and Center for Oral Biology at the Medical Center in Washington,

. . . specific polyphenols interfere with the ability of bacteria to contribute to tooth decay.

Not just oral cavities, the action of these polyphenols can also be harnessed for reducing the ability of bacteria to cause life-threatening, systemic infections, the authors explained.

Gadzooks! Look Ma, no more cavities! Of course, these polyphenols are present in large quantities in red wine, and not other alcohol-containing beverages. So I may have to switch to Pinot Noir with my tacos, and Syrah with my Haggis, and resign myself to the fact that still have to brush my teeth for a fresh smile, because the wages of gin are breath.

posted by Tim at 10:29PM

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