"The WINE DIET" & THE VALUE OF PLANTS

  We all know that Oudshoorn became prosperous from the ostrich feather boom. What about Venice in Italy?

Henry Hobhouse has written a most unusual history book – Seeds of Change. Impatient with the usual attributions of cause and effect of human conduct in history he looks at a largely unrecognized factor – plants. In particular he looks at quinine and the white man’s burden, sugar and the slave trade, tea and the destruction of China, cotton and the American South, and the potato and its links with Ireland and the USA. A later edition added coca and its links to the drug trade. In choosing his “big five” many others had to be discarded – like soya, tobacco, and maize.

But take pepper as an example. In the Middle Ages pepper was the most valuable traded spice by a factor of ten – it made salted meat (the only form of preservation at the time) palatable. All sailors carried a ration of pepper. Venice had a virtual monopoly on this trade and became rich and beautiful as a result. But from about 1470 the Turks began impeding the overland trade routes east from the Mediterranean.

As a result explorers from Portugal, Italy and Spain sailed west or south to reach the Orient. The Americas were discovered as a by-product in the search for pepper.

But what about the humble grape?

In his eminently sensible book "THE WINE DIET", Roger Corder tells us to drink red wine every day, eat fruit and berries, nuts and dark chocolate and enjoy a longer, healthier life!

1. Wine drinkers who had two to four glasses per day with their meals had 30% fewer deaths from all causes compared with non-drinkers
2. Wine consumption provides benefits beyond those that can be attributed to a healthier life style
3. Red wine drinkers showed a 40% reduction in the number of strokes
4. Two to four glasses per day reduced the risk of Alzheimer's and vascular dementia
5. Breast cancer in women is reduced by drinking red wine(moderately) linked with fruit and vegetables
6. Moderate consumption of red wine reduces the overall risk of heart disease - but binge drinking cuts out the benefits.
7. Adapt your lifestyle to stay healthy and live longer
8. If you need to lose weight this will happen naturally as part of a healthy eating plan
9. Natural plant chemicals or polyphenols in red wine protect against the danger of diseases
10. "The WINE Diet" is a natural, complete nutrition and lifestyle plan for all adults