When you sit down tonight with a glass of wine, you can enjoy it even more because research shows drinking it is actually working out your brain. According to neuroscientist Dr. Gordon Shepherd from the Yale School of Medicine, wine gives our brains more of a workout than doing math!
Dr. Shepherd says drinking wine “engages more of our brain than any other human behavior.” And he ought to know since he’s spent decades studying how the brain processes flavor.
In his book, “Neuroenology: How The Brain Creates The Taste of Wine,” Dr. Shepherd says that the process of swirling the wine in our mouths, and the tongue muscles and taste receptors that are triggered by this, engages more of our brain than listening to music or solving equations.
According to Dr. Shepherd, the taste isn’t in the wine, it’s created by the brain of the wine drinker. “The molecules in wine don't have taste or flavor,” he says, “but when they stimulate our brains, the brain creates flavor the same way it creates color.”
So while you’re sipping your favorite vino, be sure to spend a minute swirling it in your mouth, because it’s like taking your brain to the gym. And it’s way more fun than math!
Source: Cosmopolitan UK
Photo: Getty Images