Your Health and the Muscadine

In fact, around 450 BC, Hippocrates, The Father of Medicine, recommended specific wines to purge fever, disinfect wounds, as diuretics, or for nutritional supplements. Both Hippocrates (460-377 BC) and Galen (131-210AD), Nero's Army surgeon used wine to prevent infection. Rhazes (860-932AD), an Arabian physician advocated wine as medicine, a recommendation that has continued through the ages with Serge Renaud, Sir Richard Doll and Louis Pasteur.

In November of 1991, CBS aired an episode of 60 minutes with Morley Safer in exploration of "The French Paradox." A study had discovered that in areas of France where the diet is high in fat, those who drank red wine with meals had a lower incidence of heart attacks than in other parts of the world. The 60 minutes report proposed that red wine, or alcohol, decreases the incidence of cardiac diseases.

After the airing of this episode, consumption of red wine increased by 44% and more importantly, research in all types of grapes exploded.

Research at major medical centers including Harvard and The University of Wisconsin concluded that the French secret was the consumption of red. In addition, World Health Organization data indicates that the antioxidants in wine may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 40 percent.

The US National Institute of Health has determined that one of the primary causes of deteriorating health as we age is the relentless attack from free-radicals. Your body makes special enzymes to seek out and neutralize free-radicals. However, the older you get the fewer of these enzymes your body produces.

A way to battle free-radicals is to eat plants high in anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are used by the body to neutralize free-radicals and thus reduce the amount of damage our body suffers as we age.

There is no sign that the research is slowing down. Muscadines have unique phytochemical profiles and are valued for their seeds, skins, pulp and juice/wine.
Muscadine Health
Diane Hartle

To compare the antioxidant values of various foods and nutrients, scientists developed a unit of measure called the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbing Capacity). The higher the ORAC rating of a substance the more free-radicals it can neutralize. Some minerals and vitamins act as anti-oxidants. This does not mean you should take a dose larger than the recommended amount without a doctor's supervision. There can be serious side effects. The best way to increase your antioxidant levels is to get them from supplements that contain the phytochemicals found naturally in plants.

The concentration of Antioxidants in fruits vary considerably. Mississippi State University was the first to publish research that show Muscadine grapes and Muscadine products contain higher levels of antioxidants.
(Dr. Betty Ector, Mississippi State University)