Birthdays, graduations, holidays, and Monday nights all make excellent choices if you need an excuse to open a bottle of Champagne. And now you can add another entry to your list of reasons… Drinking Champagne benefits your brain power.
According to a new study published in the Antioxidants and Redox Signalling journal, drinking 1-2 glasses of Champagne each week can help improve your memory and delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Researchers at the University of Reading in the U.K. claim that phenolic compounds in Champagne improve spatial memory. This means you’re more likely to remember your way back home, and have an easier time completing complex tasks and calculations.
The study centered around giving rats a small dose of Champagne each day for six weeks. Scientists noticed the rats who drank bubbles performed twice as well on maze tests.
“Daily supplementation with a low-to-moderate dose of Champagne for six weeks led to an improvement in memory,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Giulia Corona, told Wine Spectator
This isn’t the first time polyphenol-rich foods have been targeted as having cognitive benefits. Blueberry and cocoa are two examples that saw similar results, and have become commonly recommended for humans. While the health benefits of moderate wine consumption have long been touted, most of those studies focused on red wine and this is the first we’ve heard of bubbly getting some health credits.
Dr. David Vauzour, a co-author of the study added an important note, saying it would take at least a year of steady consumption to see results. So next time you see an offer for bubbles, make sure you secure a case or two…it’s for your health after all, considering the newfound benefits of drinking Champagne.
