Here’s a question many people seem to ask whenever they are thinking of going on a diet. Does red wine fit in with the idea of a healthy diet in the first place?

Let’s take a look at what we know about staying healthy to begin with. For starters it is commonly understood that the best things we can do are to eat a balanced diet and get regular exercise in order to keep healthy. We can also add the target of maintaining a healthy weight. We all know that we should lose weight if we are carrying around too much all the time.

So where does red wine fit in to all this?

When you think of red wine, you probably think of alcohol above all else. But in fact there is a lot more to it than just a pleasant taste!

This kind of wine actually contains several things that have been thought to be good for our bodies. For starters it has antioxidants in it. These help to reduce our chances of getting all kinds of different diseases so it stands to reason that the more we can ingest, the better our chances are of staying healthy. There is also the point that many people in European countries (countries like France, where the residents tend to drink a lot of red wine in their diet) have lower incidences of the major killers such as heart disease than many other Western countries.

Great – sounds good. But is there anything else I should know about this type of wine?

The red stuff does have another ingredient in it that you may not have heard of before. This is known as resveratrol. It might sound like a strange name but in reality it seems to have a positive effect on the good type of cholesterol we carry in our bodies. It might also be able to reduce the chances of getting a blood clot and also to keep our arteries healthier for longer.

Studies are still going on to explore the health benefits of red wine. But in reality many people look to the Mediterranean diet to get clues as to how this wine helps people remain fit and healthy over the course of their lives. Most people will realize that it is not just red wine that does this – it is a combination of many different things. But the wine certainly seems to play a role too.

It should be remembered that just a small amount of the wine should be consumed as part of a healthy daily diet. A small glass is sufficient to get the benefits that come along with the wine, and if you were to drink too much you could end up consuming many more calories than you might think.

So if you are thinking about taking on a healthy diet and you were dreading the idea of giving up that glass of red wine, don’t worry. It might actually benefit you more if you carry on drinking it.