Health Update: Here's to red wine]

RED wine has long been thought to protect against heart disease - which may be why the French, who drink lots of it, suffer fewer heart problems despite a high-fat diet. Researchers in the US and Israel now think that this protective effect is not due to the wine's alcohol content. Studies published in the Lancet have shown that other substances in the wine called phenolics prevent the oxidation of certain fats, human low-density lipoproteins (HDL). The anti-oxidant properties of red wine, they suggest, prevent HDL from building up in the arteries.