"We are what we eat". Even taking this ancient saying in the broadest sense of the word, and therefore accepting that our spirit must also be fed upon a diet of literature, arts and entertainment, nobody can fail to see that there is growing concern regarding the products we consume, be they food or drink, and their long term effects upon our organism and well-being. There is also growing awareness that our diet should be a balanced one, combining gastronomic pleasure with the physiological necessities of our organism.

In this context the Mediterranean diet is perhaps one of the greatest re-discoveries of western culture. The consumption of products such as olive oil, pasta, rice, greens, vegetables and fruit; less meat and more fish; the use of cooking techniques where garlic and spices such as oregano prevail… and naturally the moderate consumption of wine. A diet in which the nutritional goodness of the foodstuff combines with the philosophy of the art of living, which as with so many other things can trace its beginnings to the Mare Nostrum and is nowadays "exported" to the most remote corners of the Earth.

As an integral part of this type of diet, wine is not unrelated to the phenomenon of concern for all things healthy. Over the past few years we have witnessed scientific verification of what was already general knowledge in growing and production areas: that wine, a product as old as our civilization and as rich in types and characteristics as our culture itself, is good for you. And not only from the very important psychosomatic point of view, but when consumed in moderation it also has specific, measurable benefits for our health.

"If penicillin cures the sick, then Sherry resuscitates the dead" wrote Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, on a butt in a Jerez bodega. Similarly, any book of Spanish sayings is full of references to the proven healthy effects of drinking sherry, a fact deeply rooted in popular wisdom. Not in vain was sherry already highly valued in Europe of the Middle Ages for its therapeutic and antiseptic properties, even being used to combat the devastating plague.

For many years it has also provided a domestic remedy for diverse ills. Take for example "candy egg": a glass of sweet sherry and an egg yolk, an effective home-made remedy against the flu' or a cold. Or the use of half a glass of sherry and two eggs as a treatment for anaemia. In addition to these curative applications popular tradition, especially in the region of origin, has always identified the consumption of sherry with a long and healthy life.

This popular wisdom has recently been confirmed by Science. A team of researchers from the Medical Faculty of Seville University, published in the prestigious 'Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture', has demonstrated that a moderate consumption of Sherry Wines significantly reduces total levels of cholesterol in blood. More specifically, decreases in total cholesterol of between 24 and 30% have been observed. This decrease is basically due to a decrease in what is commonly known as bad or low density cholesterol (LDL) whilst at the same time observing a proportional increase in the level of good, or high density cholesterol (HDL).

The study coordinated by doctors Félix López Elorza and Juan Miguel Guerrero Montávez concludes that, given that all the types of wine used in the experiment came from the same variety of grape (Palomino), "it is likely that certain components present in the grape are responsible for these changes in cholesterol levels". In this sense, Félix Elorza considers that "the fact that such apparently different wines have the same biological effects" makes us think that these properties "are a consequence of the combination of nutrients present in the soil and the variety of Palomino grape, which is the one most widely used in the region". The findings of this research concluded that Sherry Wines and Manzanilla "must be included in the list of wines with healthy physiological effects when consumed in moderation".

A moderate consumption of sherry wine may be understood to be a proportion of approximately 1 millilitre per kilo of the consumer's weight: e.g. a person who weighs 80 kilos could consume 80 millilitres daily, or the equivalent of two glasses. The coordinators of this research stress the concept of "intelligent consumption", given that abusive consumption may have counter-productive effects upon our health, as with other types of alcoholic beverage.