My New Health Regimen: Wine and Chocolate

I always knew diet was important. When nutritionists began telling us that we could live longer by cutting certain foods from our diets and eating more of others, I had no doubt they were right. I just wasn‘t sure if I wanted to live longer without alcohol, chocolate or salty snacks. Now they tell us those are exactly the things we need to have more of if we want to cross into REALLY old age. Eureka! Nutrition had finally become my friend!

With new antioxidants being discovered every day, we completely lucked out when researchers discovered flavonoids in chocolate and started recommending that we add a half ounce of dark chocolate to our diet every day. It’s actually good to eat more, as long as you don’t finish every one of the Hershey miniature dark chocolates before you pour the bag into the office candy bowl.  Unfortunately, as you add chocolate squares you have to cut back on your potato chip consumption to reduce the extra calories.

The recommended intake of red wine keeps will thrill you, unless you’re a beer drinker, in which case you’ll just have to eat more chocolate. With an abundance of reservatrol in red wine, you can actually stabilize blood glucose levels by getting mildly drunk on two glasses of a good Zinfandel. If you drink 5 to 15 glasses a day you produce life-extending effects from cellular rejuvenation. Life gets better and better! Of course with 15 glasses of red wine every day your liver would shrivel up and hide behind your spleen within a week.

Okay, so here is my health care regimen: I’m relaxing in the evening, savoring my rich, dark chocolate bar – which, incidentally tastes magnificent with the Red Zin – when I realize that I’m missing the salty snack I love with my dark chocolate. Since I cut back on potato chips, I’m forced to grab a handful of roasted, salted almonds – a valuable source of omega-6 fatty acids, phytosterols and tocopherols, good for lowering my risk of Parkinson’s, and my cholesterol level. All I have to do now is eat a bowl of delicious, juicy blueberries before bed and my aching, arthritic joints feel better from the anthocyanins and polyophenols. 

Food just isn’t that complicated. I would bet that almost no one doesn’t know that potato chips are bad – almonds are good. This is all based on common sense – if we would ever listen to that little voice that provides common sense to us. And, just like my recent discovery that bacon is the secret to longevity for my parents, red wine and chocolate would be the secret to longevity for me, even without research to substantiate it.

The additional good news is that Dr.Perricone, the guru of food and vitamins for skin improvement, says that the above-mentioned foods, plus cantaloupe and salmon, will make you look younger within just a few days – IF that’s all you eat.

But nevermind. A healthy diet of fruits, nuts and salmon, with the luxurious treat of a little red wine and chocolate daily, will keep your skin looking good, your arthritis in check and, if I failed to mention it earlier, your brain functioning clearly.  Plus, you’ll have a great big smile on your face from enjoying the heck out of eating again.

Comments

[T.A.W]

You are so right food isn't that complicated. Sometimes we need to listen to the messages our bodies send us (craving salty food) and do something to counteract it (like grabbing a handful of almonds). Notice how we don't really feel that good after giving into cravings, even though when we eat them we think we are making ourselves feel better.