Just sip it: #75 of 101 healthy reasons to drink wine

75. Many of the benefits of drinking wine have been attributed to resveratrol and the other polyphenols, and with good reason. The list of beneficial properties of resveratrol could probably fill our list of 101 reasons to drink wine by itself. And to judge by the number of companies marketing resveratrol supplements, you would think that drinking wine has become a quaint custom of a bygone age since it seems no longer necessary in order to reap the benefits. But not so fast! As I have pointed out, there is a lack of clinical studies confirming resveratrol's usefulness as an oral supplement, and one of the reasons may be that it is very poorly absorbed from the digestive tract. It is however taken up quite well through the lining of the mouth, so by sipping your wine, swirling it around to get the full flavor essence, you are actually getting more resveratrol in your system than by swallowing quickly. So those expensive pills are probably just making a more expensive end product of digestion, if you catch my drift.