There's a good chance that drinking a glass of wine after a long day's work actually counts as exercise. That is, for your brain. Swirl the wine around in your mouth to get a feel for the taste, and your brain gets a better workout figuring out the complexities of the flavor than it would if you were trying to solve a math problem.
Delish reports that neuroscientist Dr. Gordon Shepherd of Yale School of Medicine has found that drinking wine engages more working parts of the brain than any other activity does. In his book, "Neuroenology: How The Brain Creates The Taste of Wine," Dr. Shepherd says that the tongue muscles and taste receptors that are triggered when swirling the wine in your mouth do more to exercise your brain than listening to music or studying a math problem.
Imagine that! You can drink a glass of wine and exercise your brain in such a better way than trying to do algebra. Oh, how nice it would be if a full-body workout (you know what I mean: jumping jacks, burpees, squats) could be this much fun!
Part of what's cool about the whole thing, is that Dr. Shepherd has found that taste itself is actually more subjective than we think, according to Independent. He says that everyone uses their own frame of reference to process taste (which makes sense), so it is "heavily dependent on our own memories and emotions and those of our companions."
"The taste is not in the wine; the taste is created by the brain of the wine taster," says Dr. Shepherd. Also, remember that swallowing is a key part of the process. Not only should you sip and savor, but swallow the wine, too.
This is all great to know, but don't go overboard. "If you take a large sip, you've saturated your system," explains Dr. Shepherd. That will not help to exercise your brain, I guess. Keep your sips small and your taste buds tasting. That will keep your brain exercising!