Sex is “good exercise” and should be included in the regimen at least once or twice a week.

That’s the learned opinion of an expert on nutrition and immunology, offered to some 350 conferees at a two-day symposium on wine, food and the arts held at Copia earlier this week.

“We need pleasure not just to be happy but to be healthy,” advised Dr. Georges Halpern, professor of Pharmaceutical Science at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and former professor of medicine and nutrition at UC Davis.

Addressing vintners, chefs, sommeliers, artisan producers, inventors, writers, reporters and others attending the Taste 3 conference, Halpern reminded all that the immune, endocrine and central nervous systems work in concert within the healthy body.

Halpern showed studies detailing how attractive, tasty food had actually shortened the hospital stays of surgical patients by an average of three days.

“Patients recovering from surgery who had pleasing views of trees from their hospital rooms have been shown to have shorter post-operative stays and lower consumption of analgesics,” he added.

Furthermore, a study of patient stays in modern, well-designed hospitals revealed that hospitals were able to recover construction costs — often within one year — as a result of shorter hospital stays, he said.

A moderate amount of sports activity will result in less sickness, as well as a lower frequency of infections, Halpern added.

In making a case for pleasure, as well as aesthetics, Dr. Halpern said stimuli acting on the nervous and endocrine systems do indeed have positive impacts on the immune system.

A proper glass can make the wine taste better, he added. And, as many have suspected for a long time, eating chocolate will improve one’s mood substantially, he maintained.

The Europe-born professor’s remarks were not the only positive messages presented at Taste 3, billed by sponsoring Robert Mondavi Winery as “an eclectic and interdisciplinary exploration of ideas, trends, passions, stories and solutions connecting a vibrant community of wine, food and art enthusiasts.”

Foremost mycologist Paul Stamets detailed his continuing research in mycoremediation — the use of mycelium to help eliminate biological and chemical agents from the environment.— and mycofiltration — the use of mycelium to help filter silt, bacteria and other pathogens from endangered habitats.

A researcher who believes man evolved from the fungi kingdom, Stamets is helping establish healing earth centers, i.e., mushroom farms, around the globe. He has proven that fungi are the “keystone species for habitat restoration, increasing the carrying capacity of environments through soil enhancements.”

For the past two years, Stamets has been involved in several National Institutes of Health-sponsored research efforts using his strains of mushrooms in treating breast cancer, HIV and combating viruses. He recently co-founded MycoMDx, a new company bent on perfecting anti-viral medicines from fungi.

Wine’s influence

on health

Dr. Roger Corder, professor of experimental therapeutics at London’s William Harvey Research Institute, feels “half a bottle of wine a day might keep the doctor away.”

However, his research with 300 wines of the world — as well as into longevity in wine-drinking regions of France — turned up some surprising results.

The current winemaking style — producing wines with riper fruit and higher alcohol — is not as beneficial as one employed three or more decades ago.

Young red wines with intense tannins are optimum, he said. In addition, the grape with the most heart-healthy properties is tannat, a deeply colored, tannic variety best known as principal ingredient in Madiran, a hearty red from Southwest France. Almost certainly Basque in origin, the grape was taken to Uruguay in the 19th century by Basque settlers and is the principal variety in the red wines of Uruguay today.

Procyanidin, a polyphenol that is extracted from grape seeds during fermentation, is believed to be the heart-healthy ingredient responsible for boosting good cholesterol, helping prevent blood clots and promoting healthy endothelium, the thin tissue that lines blood vessels and the heart, Corder said.

Dr. Corder advised consumption of up to four glasses of lower alcohol, relatively astringent young red wine each day can be considered part of a heart healthy regimen. However, if one chooses to consume riper, high alcohol reds, then his recommendation would  be to cut that total in half.

Conference speakers also included:

• Ben Ripple, co-founder of Bali’s Big Tree Farms, who talked about developing sustainable supply chains in the South Pacific.

• Sicily’s Maurizio Cellura, whose research on the cost of producing one bottle of wine has prompted his crusade to reduce the amount of energy used in food production.

• Pennsylvania’s Dennis vanEngelsdorp, a honey bee expert who talked about the importance of bees to the environment and the current examination of colony collapse disorder all across the country.

• Kirk Azevedo, former Monsanto employee who tested and marketed insecticides, who maintains genetic crop engineering has never been successful. He feels a 10-50-year incubation period for potential disease does not justify the risk of feeding animals or humans genetically modified crops. He also noted genetic research is ongoing at present in an effort to protect grapevines from Pierce’s disease.

• San Francisco’s Blair Randall introduced a new Victory Gardens 2007 program for San Francisco residents, a backyard gardening program which the city will help subsidize.

• Leo McCloskey, president/co-founder of Sonoma’s Enologix, elaborated on the pitch he made last year for wine producers to establish their own rating system for wine. Using wine ratings from the leading wine consumer publication, Wine Spectator, McCloskey said the Oakville AVA (appellation) is the “first growth” wine region of Napa, with three of its products, Caymus, Robert Mondavi Reserve and Opus One, achieving first growth status. His call for producer-based ratings was not supported by attendees when the speaker called for a show of hands favoring his idea.

• David Molyneux-Berry, an expert in wine fraud and counterfeiting, spoke on what he called “collusion” between importers and merchants with those dabbling in counterfeit wines purported to be from the best cellars of Europe and the New World.

• Eleanor Coppola, presented clips from her documentary, “The Making of Marie Antoinette,” a film about her daughter Sofia’s last film, and talked about the elaborate meals and dishes crafted by renowned chef Marc Meneau, of Relais Chateaux L'Esperance in Vezelay, France, for the period Oscar-winning movie.

• Margrit Biever Mondavi, who noted her world-renowned winemaker husband will turn 94 next month, said that while he could not attend the daylong sessions, “Robert’s spirit is in every glass of wine” consumed at the event.

• String Theory, a collaborative ensemble of musicians and performers who use invented instruments (liked a curved harp attached to the inside of buildings like Copia and the Mondavi winery’s fermentation cellar) and sonic sculpture to create their sonic footprint.