It turns out that drinking wine is actually stimulating for your brain

Who are we to argue with science?

You may not have heard of the scientific field that is neurogastronomy - but trust us, you'll want to.

Yes, so it's all about how food and drink affect our brain and research has recently emerged that it takes our brain a lot of work to process that we're drinking wine.

And, the word process seems apt because apparently the brain activity is similar to if we were solving an equation or coming up with a solution to a problem.

It's because wine has such a (ahem, delicious) and distinct taste that our brain has to figure out what we're tasting every time we drink it.

Yale neuroscience professor Dr. Gordon Brooke-Shepherd has recently released a book Neuroenology: How The Brain Creates The Taste Of Wine and his theory has been validated by the likes of Heston Blumenthal.

And, even smelling wine and swishing it around your mouth counts as a physical work out because it requires muscles in your body that digest the taste and odours. (Now that's a workout we can climb on-board.)

However, apparently this only applies when you're carefully sipping the wine - so you might want to slow down - as this allows your senses to take in all of the flavour.

The reason why you like Merlot while your friend swears by Malbec is all to do with other factors like age, gender and how much saliva you produce. Although, there are wine hacks to make flavours you don't like taste nicer to you...

So, rest assured that if you carefully sip your wine, you are giving your mind and body a total workout. After all, drinking a glass of wine could protect you from a stroke, too, and organic wine could even halve your hangover. So, um, is it 5PM yet?