It was about the year 600 AC that Hippocrates, the Greek physician and considered as the Father of Medicine, attributed medicinal qualities to wine, by saying: "When correctly administered and in the right proportions, the wine is beneficial to healthy and to sick men".

From the physiologic and toxicological point of view, one should not confuse wine with a simple alcoholic solution. Wine has components that restrain the alcohol from having a harmful action in the human body when ingested with moderation.

Nowadays the consumer is more and more concerned with the composition and quality of food items, and many times he's deceived by the means used by the consumer's society.

The products containing caffeine, sugar, preservatives, oxidising and freezing agents, and sometimes even high cancerous additives, when ingested in quantities similar to wine are clearly much more pathogenic and do not present the beneficial physiologic qualities of wine which, besides alcohol, has about 600 elements, some of them highly necessary to health.

Any food and even water may be useful or harmful depending on the quantity and conditions they are ingested.

The white Vinho Verde is mainly consumed with meals and usually with fish or seafood or white meat dishes.

However and due to its lightness and freshness, as well as to its low alcohol content and typical "petillance" which combine very well with appetizers, one may observe a trend to drink it before meals.

The necessary condition for Vinho Verde to express all its qualitative potential is of being served at a temperature of 8 to 10 degrees centigrade.

It may be concluded that wine plays an important role in the maintenance of human health, giving origin, when drunk in small quantities, to biological phenomenon's capable of protecting our body, avoiding the deterioration of its cellular elements, controlling its metabolism and defending it from pathologic changes, internal and external injuries and providing a longer longevity and more quality of life.

CORPUS SANUS VINUS SANUS.