The #1 Drink The Longest Living People Sip On Daily
There are people across the globe living past 100, and some even living beyond 110! In a world with so many incidents of heart attack, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, it's hard to imagine that there are entire communities that avoid premature death and live such long, healthy lives.
But how do they do it? This is the question asked by many researchers who have devoted their work to the Blue Zones-five regions in the world with the highest concentrations of centenarians and supercentenarians.
The five Blue Zone communities achieve their longevity through healthy eating, natural movement, community, and developing a sense of purpose. And shockingly enough, they are also known to relax at the end of every day with a nice glass of red wine!
The health benefits of wine
While drinking in excess can have detrimental consequences on your health, research continues to back up the idea that a modest amount of wine, especially red wine, can help your heart and overall longevity. In fact, out of the five blue zones, four of them regularly drink wine at the end of the day, which naturally leads to the question of whether or not this contributes to their longevity.
One 15-year study by the University of California found that daily habits like drinking wine, drinking coffee, spending time with friends, and daily exercise could lower your risk of premature death.
Red wine is full of powerful antioxidants that have been found to help lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, may help lower the risk of stroke, can help manage cholesterol, and can help reduce the risk of neurodegenerative disease.
And in Sardinia, Italy, people sip on a type of red wine called Cannonau wine. This specific type of Italian wine is known to carry at least twice as many heart-healthy flavonoids and nutrients as other types of red wine.
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Relaxing at the end of the day
Not only does the wine itself provide health benefits, but Blue Zone centenarians benefit from how they drink it as well. For example, regions like Ikaria and Sardinia are known to decompress at the end of the day by spending time relaxing and drinking wine with friends.
This helps them not only lower their stress levels and find intentional moments of calm, but it gives them an excuse to be around their loved ones, something that has been shown to help increase longevity.
What this means for you
This information doesn't mean that you should start drinking alcohol on a daily basis, especially if you don't already. An important component to take into consideration with these facts about longevity and wine is that people in the Blue Zones experience other factors that contribute to their long lives, many of which are different than what we have here in the U.S.
For example, Sardinians drink red wine on a daily basis, but they also eat very little processed food or added sugar, limit their consumption of meat, and they don't remain sedentary for long periods of time during the day.
So while we can still get many positive heart-healthy benefits from wine, Americans partake in many habits that are not healthy for their heart. This includes things like eating fast and processed food, consuming too much sugar, binge drinking, and not getting enough daily exercise.
