She favored black currant, elderberry and blackberry wine. Tart cherries and small, dark navy-blue grapes were also acceptable, but black currants and elderberry were credited with greater preventive and healing power. And while the days of home-made wine may be over, we now have excellent extracts that provide standardized doses of the active polyphenols in berries and grapes. Dry red wine is now recommended for diabetics, and is thought to be one reason for the greater slenderness of the French compared with other Europeans. Before we look at some of these benefits, a quick note on the often confusing current terminology.
Different authors use different terms.
Anthocyanins, which are larger molecules, are sometimes called polymeric condensed tannins. Various berries, dark grapes and pine bark are particularly rich sources of proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins. Plants usually contain complex mixtures of phenolic compounds, including simple phenolic acids, quercetin, catechins, epicatechins, proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins. Wine is estimated to contain over two hundred phenolic compounds, though it is known that proanthocyanidins are the major bioactive polyphenols. I find the broad term polyphenols to be the most convenient.