Cuban Doctor and Professor Troadio González Pérez, from the Cuban Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene and a specialist in normal and pathological human physiology, answers that question.

Important nutritional factors and beneficial biological effects are attributed to wines in general, but mainly to red wine because of its high content of antioxidants.

Avoiding excess, in a normal or well-balanced diet, we should drink approximately two glasses or 220-250 milliliters of wine containing
3-10% of alcohol daily, González Pérez comments.

Consumed as indicated above, wine could contribute to extending life up to 120 years or more.

But one must know how to drink it.

According to the Wine Research Foundation, pregnant and breastfeeding women should not drink wine.

Wine is healthy when consumed in moderation and accompanied by food.

A scientific investigation carried out in France in 1989 by the Monique Project, sponsored by the World Health Organization, discovered that there are fewer cases of cardiovascular disease in France than in Britain and the United States because the French consume more red wine and have a diet, rich in fruits and vegetables.

Reliable literature attests to the benefits of drinking wine. Doctor González Pérez always recommends it, together with a balanced diet, and adds: "Most people believe that they are well-nurtured when they eat large quantities of food. They are wrong, because we need to eat in moderation, and our diet needs to be varied and internally balanced so that its genetic charge can be expressed as strongly as possible.

This means ingesting the required amounts from each chemical category.

González Pérez warns that aging begins from the time an ovule is fertilized by a spermatozoon, and is influenced by genetic factors and actions taken by individuals themselves to address external or exogenous factors. Nutritional factors are particularly important.

González Pérez explains that aging is connected with oxidative stress or the generation of free radicals, given that they perform one of the most important cell functions, metabolism. Important biomolecules, such as proteins and other materials associated with the DNA, deteriorate the cells’ reproductive capacity.

The free radical can be an atomic association or a molecule whose electronic structure confers on it the capacity of chemical reaction with other molecules with certain characteristics. When they have attached themselves to these other molecules, they are able to change their structure and function.

To compensate for the potential attack of these free radicals, we should avoid excesses in our lifestyle. But if this happens, it is necessary to resort to a diet rich in antioxidants, including all the vitamins: B, C, A and E and some nutritious minerals such as copper, selenium, manganese and zinc.

A healthy diet should include fruits and vegetables containing nutritious and chemical elements called phyto-chemicals. Over 6,242 varieties of these chemicals are known, and they have certain antioxidant agents.

Doctor González Pérez explains that a healthy diet should contain these elements in order to delay biological aging.

All these issues were addressed at a conference for a group of centenarians at the Hotel Nacional in Cuba, where González Pérez and other experts in different medical disciplines lectured on biological aging and longevity.