Health Benefits of Wine

The health benefits of red wine have been a hot topic in recent years and have raised some questions.  What are the benefits? Is red wine healthier than white?  What about grape juice?  There seems to be some confusing information available with everyone weighing in from Wikipedia to the Mayo Clinic.  Ummm, let’s start with the more reliable source.  According to the Mayo Clinic, alcohol in moderation is believed to benefit the heart in the following ways:

• Raises (HDL) cholesterol, the “good” cholesterol
• Reduces the formation of blood clots
• Helps prevent artery damage caused by high levels of (LDL) cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol

Note this is all types of alcohol, not just red wine, but white wine, beer, and spirits.  The buzz about red wine is linked to antioxidants, particularly resveratrol.  There are more antioxidants in red wine than white because red wines involve grape skins – the source of a grape’s antioxidants.  Studies have shown that resveratrol could be linked to reduced inflammation and risk of blood clotting. These studies, however, have mostly been done in animals with higher levels of resveratrol than people could get from red wine and still be able to stand up.

Antioxidants are the reason for the “super foods” movement that has health conscious foodies eating highly colored produce like blueberries and kale.  Tasting Pour is often asked about getting the antioxidant resveratrol from other sources.  According to the Mayo Clinic “Red and purple grape juices may have some of the same heart-healthy benefits of red wine.” There are certainly foods that provide resveratrol (peanuts, blueberries, etc.) but in varying amounts compared to red wine. Those who choose to take resveratrol supplements should know that the body cannot absorb much of the antioxidant through that delivery system.  (Personally, the supplement choice is difficult to understand anyway.  It would be like if ice cream were good for you and you took an ice cream supplement instead of enjoying a scoop – but we digress).  It should also be noted that the potential health benefits of alcohol in general are missing from these sources.

Of course there are health risks to drinking too much.  We are not sharing this information to encourage people to start drinking as a part of a healthy lifestyle.  It is probably safe to assume that readers of a wine blog probably already imbibe on occasion.  This is meant simply as an FYI on some of the research concerning the question of “healthy” red wines.  We do encourage alcohol consumers to drink in moderation – defined in the United States as not more than 2 drinks per day for men and 1 drink per day for women.  A drink is defined as 12 oz of beer, 5 oz of wine, or 1.5 oz of 80 proof distilled spirits. And Tasting Pour, through no research just experience and opinion, recommends drinking occur at a meal with friends and/or family.  We suspect that those who place a priority on planning meals and spending time with loved ones are likely to make other healthy lifestyle choices.