The Surprising Health Benefits of Drinking Wine

From the Mediterranean Diet to the French Paradox, wine intake has been associated with a healthy, balanced lifestyle. For us wine-lovers, this is especially good news as many of us love to relax by pouring a glass after a long day of work or when out to a fancy dinner. So, with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, let’s take a took at why we shouldn’t feel guilty about indulging in a glass of vino.

The M-Word

Before you break out your bottle-sized wine glass to celebrate, let’s clear up one very important thing first: portion size. While there are health benefits to drinking wine, the key word you’ll notice in almost every study is “moderation.”

Both the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association define moderate intake as 1 glass per day for women and up to 2 per day for men. And those are 5-ounce pours, not 8.

Don’t drink every night? It doesn’t matter if you had a glass of wine every night of the week or none, when it comes to your body and alcohol, “saving up” and drinking several glasses on the weekends doesn’t count as moderation.

Okay, now that we have that taken care of, let’s get into the good stuff!

Good for Your Heart

Out of all the health claims, this one has the most research behind it. From raising good cholesterol and decreasing risk of cardiovascular events to improving anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid levels, let’s look at why wine may be beneficial for your heart!

In a recent meta-analysis of 76 clinical studies, moderate wine intake was found to significantly increase HDL (the good cholesterol), with mixed results on whether it helped to lower LDL cholesterol levels.

As far as heart disease goes, many studies, including this meta-analysis , report a J-shaped relationship between wine intake and cardiovascular disease. What this means is that moderate wine consumption is associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease, but once that moderate-intake threshold is crossed, wine intake becomes associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases and events.

While the antioxidants in wine were initially thought to be the main reason for these cardio-protective effects, a large European prospective study of 1,604 individuals found that men and women who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol regularly had higher concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids independent of fish intake – and this association was highest in wine drinkers.

While omega-3’s have numerous health benefits, they play a vital role in reducing inflammation, which overtime can lead to numerous chronic diseases and is likely a contributing factor in the heart-protective effects of wine.

Helps Protect Against Type 2 Diabetes

Many epidemiological studies have observed an association between moderate wine intake and decreased risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

One of which is a prospective study of 36,527 adults in Australia. The study found that moderate wine consumption was associated with reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Similarly, the Nord-Trondelag Health Survey found decreased odds of developing Type 2 Diabetes in moderate wine drinkers, but not in those who regularly drank beer or spirits.

And the benefits aren’t just for prevention of diabetes. A 2014 prospective study followed 11,140 individuals already diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes over 5 years. At the end of the study, they found decreased risk of cardiovascular events, microvascular complications, and all-cause mortality in those who were moderate wine drinkers.

May Decrease Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

A hot topic of research these days is prevention of alzheimer’s, and one food that’s been getting some attention for possibly being protective is wine.

Recent epidemiological studies have shown moderate wine intake to be associated with decreased risk of developing Alzheimer’s. However, as to how, why, and if there is indeed a connection is still being studied.

In a recent study, researchers found that wine-specific phenolic acids were in fact protective of brain cells, helping to prevent against neuronal cell death. While this study in no means proves a cause and effect, it does show promise that there may be a link between compounds found in wine and protection against Alzheimer’s.

So Red or White?

If you’re a chardonnay-lover, you may be asking why red wine usually gets the healthy halo. To start, red wine contains over 500 compounds, with the big three being water, polyphenols, and alcohol.

To avoid getting too sciency, polyphenols are plant-based compounds that have many health benefits, the biggest being antioxidant activities. Polyphenols can be grouped into flavonoids (also found in dark chocolate) and non-flavonoids (the most famous being resveratrol).

Red wine contains 10 times the amount of polyphenols compared to white wine. This is a big deal as flavonoids are potent antioxidants that have been shown to decrease LDL levels and prevent against atherosclerosis development (a.k.a heart attacks).

Resveratrol, a non-flavonoid polyphenol, has been studied as a potential treatment for cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer. It’s also possibly cardioprotective. It’s important to note that while red wine has a substantial amount of resveratrol, grapes and berries are also excellent sources of this antioxidant. LINK

In addition, researchers are now finding that it may actually be the combination of alcohol and polyphenols in red wine that results in cardioprotective nature of red wine, rather than just the polyphenols alone.

One thing to note is that in many studies the type of wine isn’t always mentioned. As a result, it’s thought that there are other compounds in white wine that are also beneficial for health, especially heart health, that just aren’t as well studied as those in red wine.

So which to pick? While red wine has a slight edge thanks to having more research behind it, it really comes down to which you enjoy more. . .and the calories.

Which wines are the healthiest?

While wine does have some health benefits, it also contains calories and sugars, which if consumed in excess can get in the way of our health goals.

As a good rule of thumb, drier (less sweet) and lower alcohol wines have the lowest amount of calories and sugar.

Generally speaking, a 5-ounce glass of red wine has around 125 calories, with syrah and grenache at the lower end around 120 calories and red zinfandel on the higher at 130 calories.

White wines are where the sugar makes a huge difference. For example, a dry riesling has around 123 calories per 5-ounces while a sweet riesling has closer to 255 calories.

As a rule of thumb, dry white wines will have around 120 calories per 5-ounces; while sweet whites will have between 150-250 calories.

Looking for the lowest calorie option? Stick with a white zinfandel (105 calories) or a dry champagne/sparkling wine (96 calories).

Bottom Line

Moderate consumption of wine, especially red wine, has been shown to have protective effects against many chronic diseases. However, most of the research is observational only, and the strongest benefits are usually seen when wine is one piece of an overall health eating pattern.

Need some accountability? Make sure to log your wine intake in Lose It!