Friday 31 October 2008

A Copper-Bottomed Wine Case?

Tests have revealed that many table wines (both white and red) contain potentially dangerous quantities of metal ions (notably copper and manganese) that have been linked to conditions such as Parkingson's disease and rheumatoid arthritis (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/30/wine-foodanddrink). The worst offenders were wines from Hungary and Slovakia whereas tipple from Argentina and Brazil had the lowest concentrations. The authors of the study published in Chemistry Central Journal suggest that wine labels should carry information on metal ion concentrations as well as alcohol content (they suggest that the very combination of ions and alcohol can be problematic). I suspect that the metals could be relatively easily removed during 'manufacture' but wonder whether comparable studies have been carried out on vintage wines. The timing of this paper is of interest with respect to another recently released study (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/31/women-pregnancy-alchohol-birth-defects) suggesting that an occasional drink (this is likely to be 1-2 glasses of wine per week) during pregnancy does not have any negative impact on the cognitive abilities or behavioural attributes of the child at 3 years of age (although it was admitted that the women who occasional drank during their term were more likely to come from a 'professional background', suggesting the potential influence of social advantage). Apparently, baby boys (in particular) benefit from an occasional drink in the womb!

2 comments:

cindysidcards said...

First time I read your blog...there's alot of good information here. It makes me more leary of imports from other countries. The standards need to be high and quality control in place. Thanks for info...
Cindy
www.ideasdestiny.blogspot.com

Paul Brain said...

We aim to inform

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