The following passage discusses a study that | |
examined the effects of drinking wine. | |
(1) Many experts of the physiological effects | |
of alcoholic beverages have assumed that the only active | |
ingredient in wine, like liquor and beer, is alcohol. (2) | |
Furthermore, experts of the physiological effects of | |
alcoholic beverages have rarely considered the ways in | |
which the effects of wine are different than those of other | |
alcoholic beverages. (3) Wine encompassing grape based | |
fermented beverages only and not from other ingredients. | |
(4) While making no distinction between wine, beer and | |
liquor and while focusing the majority of their research on | |
the excessive or abusive intake of these beverages, these | |
experts have obscured the healthful effects of wine that | |
have been discovered in recent studies. | |
(5) It is undoubtedly true that most alcoholic | |
beverages have negative physiological effects. (6) For | |
example, alcohol is known to raise the body’s level of | |
lipids (fats, cholesterol, waxes, sterols, etc.), which play a | |
considerable role in the development of premature heart | |
disease. (7) But a recent group of scientists has found | |
several non-harmful effects of moderate wine consumption | |
In particular, they found that alcohol enters the | |
bloodstream much slower when individuals drink wine | |
than when they drink equal qualities of beer or liquor. (8) | |
In addition, it was also discovered that the rate of death | |
from premature heart disease in Europe dropped | |
significantly as the rate of moderate wine consumption | |
increased. (9) Skeptics have pointed out other factors, | |
such as increasing levels of exercise and improvements in | |
medical technology, to account for this phenomenon, but | |
their arguments cannot explain why the rates of death from | |
premature heart disease have fallen in other areas of high | |
wine consumption that have below average levels of | |
physical fitness and medical technology. | |
(10) What could account for the apparently | |
healthful effects of wine? For one, the scientists have | |
discovered that wine contains a natural clot-breaking | |
compound that doctors commonly use to improve blood | |
flow through clogged blood vessels. (11) Their studies | |
have also shown that wine contains compounds that | |
counteract the harmful effects of high lipid levels. (12) | |
Because many studies have found lipid processing to be | |
the weightiest contributing factor in occurrences of | |
premature heart disease, the lipid-regulating components | |
of wine are gaining widespread attention in the field of | |
cardiac medicine. | |
(13) Meanwhile, the scientists have discovered | |
other effects of wine that improve cardiac heath. (14) | |
Their studies show that wine not only decreases the | |
thickness of the innermost walls of blood vessels, but also | |
reduces the formation of blood clots by reducing platelet | |
adhesiveness. (15) This finding is similar to the results of | |
another study that deemed grape juice a tonic that | |
decreases platelet adhesiveness. (16) This may explain | |
why non-grape alcoholic beverages do not have similar | |
effects as wine on blood vessel thickness or platelet | |
adhesiveness. |
In context, which of the following is the best version of the underlined portion of sentence 2(reproduced below)?
Furthermore, experts of the physiological effects of alcoholic beverages have rarely considered the ways in which the effects of wine are different than those of other alcoholic beverages.