Photo by ricko
Researchers have discovered that drinking a nice Cabernet with your juicy steak at dinner protects your body from harmful toxins released during digestion. Red wine helps neutralize these toxins with antioxidants called polyphenols:

In a study on rats, scientists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem fed some of the animals ground meat, and fed others the same meat infused with red-wine extract. Subsequent tests revealed that the wine-dosed rats had lower levels of the fat-derived toxins.

“Diets high in fat and red meat are contributory risk factors,” the study’s authors write in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. But if you do indulge in a grilled porterhouse now and then, you can reduce the risk with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The study helps to explain the so-called French paradox—the relatively low heart-disease rate among wine-drinking Frenchmen and -women, despite diets high in cheese, butter, meat, and other forms of fat.

Wine, the antidote to a grilled steak [The Week]