Give a Gift of Long Life – Give Wine

Red wine is one of the world’s great health drinks, scientists now tell us. So, you can feel doubly good about giving it to a friend as a gift. It could even help them live longer.

Red wine contains a compound called resveratrol, which has been shown to extend lifespan in a variety of organisms. Reseveratrol is present in the skin of the grapes from which wine is made, and is also found in grape juice. The catch is that resveratrol oxidizes quickly when extracted from grape skins to make juice; wine, on the other hand, preserves it until it can be used by our bodies.

Health supplement companies have been working on packing resveratrol into capsules, but the oxidation problem has so far made this problematic.

Face it, if you want all the benefits of resveratrol and its anti-aging capabilities, you’ll just have to get it in alcohol – red wine, to be specific.

A great idea would be to create an “anti-aging” gift basket to give a friend or loved one for a birthday or other occasion. This would be sort of like a wine basket – in fact, its centerpiece would be a bottle or two of good red wine – but it would include such things as a book of anti-aging tips, some exercise paraphernalia, and so on.

I would not give such a basket to just anyone, though. If your friend is a fitness nut then he or she should appreciate it much more than a basket of chocolates. On the other hand, some people are sensitive about getting older and might not welcome your insinuation (even if you didn’t mean it) that they are beginning to look a little wrinkly. For such folks, just give them the wine without any word that will help them keep age at bay.