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	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. Due to
	this assumption, these experts have rarely considered the
5	ways in which the effects of wine are different than those
	of other alcoholic beverages. 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
10	healthful effects of wine that have been discovered in
	recent studies.
	It is undoubtedly true that most alcoholic
	beverages have negative physiological effects. For
	example, alcohol is known to raise the body’s level of
15	lipids (fats, cholesterol, waxes, sterols, etc.), which play a
	considerable role in the development of premature heart
	disease. 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
20	much slower when individuals drink wine than when they
	drink equal qualities of beer or liquor. In addition, they
	also discovered that the rate of death from premature heart
	disease in Europe dropped significantly as the rate of
	moderate wine consumption increased. Skeptics have
25	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
30	consumption that have below average levels of physical
	fitness and medical technology.
	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
35	doctors commonly use to improve blood flow through
	clogged blood vessels. Their studies have also shown that
	wine contains compounds that counteract the harmful
	effects of high lipid levels. Because many studies have
	found lipid processing to be the weightiest contributing
40	factor in occurrences of premature heart disease, the lipid-
	regulating components of wine are gaining widespread
	attention in the field of cardiac medicine.
	In addition, the scientists have discovered other
	effects of wine that improve cardiac heath. Their studies
45	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.
	This finding is similar to the results of another study that
	deemed grape juice a tonic that decreases platelet
50	adhesiveness. The similar results of the two studies suggest
	that the source of the potentially healthful effects of wine
	is in some of the natural compounds of grapes. This may
	explain why non-grape alcoholic beverages do not have
	similar effects as wine on blood vessel thickness or platelet
55	adhesiveness.