One way to celebrate the joy of nourishing the body is with a glass of red wine and some French cheese. The health benefits of red wine are plentiful: it has powerful antioxidant properties that are derived from the red pigments in grape skins (members of a family of compounds called proanthocyanidins); it contains tannins that can reduce the risk of heart attack by hindering the formation of blood clots; and studies have shown that red wine can raise levels of HDL, the protective form of cholesterol.