NYT, The Claim: A Glass of Wine With Dinner Aids Digestion

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/health/09real.html

New York Times Article Review Rubric (10 pts)

Select a “lengthy” article (more than two paragraphs) that summarizes or discusses one or more science projects.

Summarize your article (who, what, when, where and how) in one paragraph (2 pts) and then answer the following questions:

1.       In one sentence, what is the main point of the article? (1 pt)

2. What counter-arguments or counter-points does the author make? (1 pt)

 3. How does this article relate to anything we have or will discuss in class( digestive system)? How does this article relate to something related to your major ( health care), possible career and/or life? Note, your article may not relate to the class, but it should at least relate to your major, career and/or life. (2 pts)

 4. Explain if these studies were observational, experimental, technological or some combination of the three. If applicable, identify the independent and (at least one) dependent variables. What possible confounding variables are present in the study? How do the authors “control” for these? (2 pts)

 5. What questions does the article leave unanswered? (1 pt)

6. What did you learn from this article? (1 pt)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/health/09real.html

Health | Really?

The Claim: A Glass of Wine With Dinner Aids Digestion

By ANAHAD O’CONNORMARCH 8, 2010

THE FACTS

Pairing the right wine with a meal can round out flavors and stimulate conversation. But can it really help digest the meal, as suggested by a host of authorities through the ages, even the Bible? (“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake.”)

Millenniums later, scientists are still working on that one. Some have found that alcoholic beverages speed the emptying of food from the stomach and stimulate gastric acid, while others maintain there is little effect. One study by German researchers, in the aptly named journal Gut, may explain the discrepancy: it found an effect from fermented drinks (wine, sherry and beer) but not from drinks that were fermented and distilled, like rum, cognac and whiskey.

Credit Christoph Niemann

“The alcoholic beverage constituents that stimulate gastric acid output and release of gastrin are most probably produced during the process of fermentation and removed during distillation,” they concluded.

Other studies help explain why red wine and red meat pair so well. Protein softens the wine’s tannins, and red wine also helps counteract potentially harmful substances — oxidized fats called malonaldehydes, or MDA — released when meat is digested.

A 2008 study found that a serving of dark meat from turkey elevated levels of the substance in subjects’ blood. But when they combined it with a glass of cabernet sauvignon or shiraz, the increase in MDA was “completely prevented.”

THE BOTTOM LINE

In more ways than one, a glass of wine may aid digestion.

ANAHAD O’CONNOR