Some Amazing Benefits of Grape Juice (And Wine!)
Grape juice is a great source of antioxidants, and one in particular: the well-known and highly effective resveratrol. Resveratrol is an antioxidant but it also helps to prevent the creation of free radicals.
Maybe it’s time we delved into antioxidants in a little more detail. As mentioned, these work by combating the action of free radicals. Free radicals are in turn molecules that travel around the body and are highly reactive when they come into contact with cells. If a free radical hits a cell in your body, then it will result in damage to the cell wall due to a chemical reaction. That damage is minor and in the short term, you won’t notice it. However, as the damage continues to occur over and over again, it adds up. Eventually, this can add up to macroscopic damage, meaning it is visible to the naked eye. That is one of the things that leads to the physical changes we observe when aging!
The most serious problem with free radicals though, is that they can eventually break entirely through the cell walls and reach the centre of the cell, called the nucleus. This is where the DNA is housed, and when that gets damaged, it leads to mutations. When the DNA of a cell is damaged, the mutation can render it ineffective at performing the job it is assigned to carry out. In short, the cell stops functioning and this can then lead to an organ failure or other problem.
Of course, just one damaged cell is unlikely to lead to organ failure. The real problem is that cells reproduce via a process called mitosis. That is to say that they break in half and form two identical copies and these copies are created using the DNA as a blueprint. So if that DNA is broken, then you get two broken cells now. And as these spread and spread, the bad code is copied throughout the body eventually resulting in tumors and serious problems. This is how cancer is born.
While free radicals are an unavoidable by-product of the mitochondrial energy process, resveratrol actually works to make the mitochondria more efficient and thereby helps to prevent the damage. Grape juice both helps to combat free radicals then and fights them at the source preventing them from being created in the first instance!
Grape juice has many of the same health benefits touted for red wine but without the negative effects of the alcohol! On top of that, it also help to boost immunity, prevent bowel disorders, and more!
That said, if you love your red wine, you’ll still get this benefit so it’s not all bad!
