People who don't like red wine can get some of the same benefits from drinking grape juice. In fact, grape juice contains more of some heart-healthy chemicals than red wine. However, the type of grape used to make the juice makes a difference in how beneficial the juice is when it comes to the heart.
Wine Heart Benefits
Red wine may lower your risk for heart disease through reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, reducing the risk for blood clots and making it less likely the blood vessels in the heart will get damaged. Red wine may also increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and lessen the amount of atherosclerosis, or clogging of the arteries, that you have. The benefits are thought to be due to the antioxidant flavonoids in the wine, including catechin and resveratrol.
Grape Juice vs. Wine
Drinking grape juice appears to provide many of the same benefits as wine. The beneficial substances in grape juice stay in the body longer when they come from grape juice than when they come from wine. Grape juice also appears to be more beneficial in improving blood cell function without creating damaging free radicals, like alcohol. However, drinking grape juice doesn't seem to increase HDL levels.
Considerations
To get a reduction in blood clotting, you need to consume enough wine to make you drunk, making grape juice a better option for this purpose. However, choose grape juice made from black, purple or red grapes, as white grapes do not contain all of the heart-healthy flavonoids of darker grapes. Concord grapes appear to have the highest levels of beneficial flavonoids.
Expert Insight
Grapes and grape juice can be a part of a healthy diet, but further studies need to be done before recommendations can be made regarding grape juice and heart attack prevention, according to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Eating grapes can provide some of the benefits of drinking grape juice or wine, but will not provide you with as high a dose of flavonoids, because many of these are in the seeds, which most people avoid eating.
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