What Is Brandy, and How Healthy Is It? [by Kelechi Deca]

Brandy is a spirit drink produced by the distillation of wines with ethanol content below 94.8% volume. Its ageing process includes the use of oak barrels for a minimum of one year.

Cognac, a traditional French alcohol produced exclusively in the Charante department of France, is made through the double distillation of white wine and is left for maturation for several years in oak barrels, which help in its purification process; that is how it gained the name “eau-de-vie,” meaning Water of Life.

Young cognac acquires the right aroma, taste, and colour during maturation as a result of a series of chemical reactions between the ingredients of the drink. Of key importance in the ageing of brandy is the presence of wood, from which volatile and non-volatile wood compounds are extracted. Not all woods qualify. Oak comes first.

These include lactones, furan compounds, vanillin derivatives, polyphenols, e.g., phenolic acids, coumarins, or lignins. And because of the high polyphenol content in Brandy, it offers lots of cardiovascular benefits. This is because polyphenols suppress a gene called NF-kappaB that has a role in inflammation.

While alcoholic drinks have been associated with unhealthy habits making it a no go area for many health conscious individuals, there are plenty of health benefits if consumed moderation, and rightly.

Before the invention of modern medicine, most of what we have today as recreational drinks were in actual fact deployed for medicinal purposes. From Whisky to Coke, Gin to Tonics, Brandy to Rum. The ancients discovered certain health benefits from each of them, even as they were binding the soul of men, and sending them to nirvana.

Brandy is different from other alcoholic drinks because it contains no carbs and I is low in cholesterol. This means that brandy can fit into a lot of diets like keto, for example.

It can also be used as an aperitif that is taken before a meal to help stimulate the appetite. This is because the antioxidants it contains helps to clean the arteries of bad cholesterol and make way for the good cholesterol.

Brandy is healthier than beer. Unlike beer, Brandy has no carbs so there will never be a conversion of carbohydrates into fat and there’s no storing fat as a result. When taken alone, and in the right quantity, it offers lots of health benefits thus the need to be careful with unhealthy cokctails, a point I pointed out to customers of Naija Liquor.

A glass of Brandy has cocktails of anti-inflammatory properties that are very effective in tackling respiratory issues like coughs and sore throats. Its high alcohol by volume helps eliminate bacteria and loosen up phlegm and mucus acting like an expectorant.

A thousand years ago, it was discovered that Brandy can induce sleep, because of its warming properties, while its high antibacterial nature was found to be good for the immune system because it was found to help eliminate pathogens.

When ancient mariners said that a good wine makes the heart merry, they were saying so both literally and metaphorically. And like good wine, good Brandy tackled bad cholesterol which helps keep the heart healthy by reducing plaque buildup and inflammation in the cardiovascular system.

That is the basis for what is called the French Paradox.

In the 1980s French epidemiologists were shocked by the very low rate of coronary heart disease in France, this was inspite of the fact that the French has one of the highest intakes of dietary cholesterol and saturated fat in the world.

Further studies found that because France has one of the highest per capita consumption of red wine, and other drinks like Brandy, it helped to counter whatever health effects their high sugary, high fat, high intakes of dietary cholesterol might have had on them.

They called it The French Paradox.

Even though some people within the global medical community kicked against the concept of The French Paradox, further studies still uphold the fact that wine micro-constituents exert potent anti-inflammatory and anti-platelet actions.

And almost three decades later, Epidemiology supports the J-shaped relationship between wine consumption and vascular events as well as cardiovascular mortality with a maximum protection at 21 g of alcohol consumption in the form of wine per day.

Maybe that’s why the French are generally healthier than the beer guzzling British.

It was also noted that apart from the amount of alcohol consumption, the drinking pattern has also been reported as a determinant for the beneficial effect of wine on human health. In particular, the sustained light-to-moderate wine consumption has been associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular diseases, and all-cause mortality, while the ‘‘binge’’ drinking has harmful effects.

Brandy also has ellagic acid, which scientists found as a deterrent to the development of cancerous cells. It was equally discovered that the presence of Copper in the aging barrels of Brandy has antioxidants that can help eliminate free radicals in people’s bodies’ thus anti-aging effects.

A cursory observation of Brandy drinkers who drink responsibly shows suffer less from symptoms such as poor vision, wrinkles, cognitive issues, and even chronic conditions.

They are basically jolly good fellows like Nwannem Emeka Oparah.

In all your drinking, drink responsibly!

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