Much has been made of the health benefits of red wine, and the good news for those of us who like to unwind with a glass or two is that the red stuff really does seem to be the smart person’s drink of choice.
But before you start glugging gallons and gallons of red wine, it’s important to remember that red wine’s health benefits can be easily outweighed by the negative effects of drinking in excess. So what exactly are the benefits of drinking red wine? And how much should we be drinking?
According to several scientific studies, the key to red wine’s health-giving properties lies in the polyphenols – chemical compounds – found within the wine skin. These are thought to act as powerful antioxidants, protecting the body from disease. In particular, red wine is lauded for its high levels of resveratrol, an anti-oxidant thought to be between 20 and 50 times as effective as vitamin C. Scientists believe that resveratrol can have an anti-blood clotting effect, helping to prevent the forming of clots in the blood vessels. These clots, or thrombi, are a major cause of heart attacks and strokes, making red wine, rich as it is in resveratrol, a heart-healthy tipple.
One of the key factors in the argument for red wine’s heart health benefits is a study, carried out by science journal Nature which appeared to show that regular moderately drinking red wine slowed the creation of endothelin-1; a protein that can create a build up of fatty tissue along the walls of the arteries.
Not only that, but red-wine drinking has also been found to have a positive effect in preventing certain cancers and slowing the progress of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Should you need any further persuasion to pour yourself a glass, consider the fact the heart disease and cancer rates have been shown to be considerably lower in red wine-drinking populations than in those where red wine is never, or rarely, drunk. This is found to be the case even in communities where fatty meats and cheeses are regularly consumed (often referred to as the French Paradox – the French tend to eat rich food, drink lots of wine, yet have low levels of heart disease).
Whilst white wine may deliver some benefits in terms of preventing heart disease and heart attacks, the results are far more dramatic with red wine. Medics believe that this is because resveratrol and the other polyphenols found in wine are present in grape leaves, skins and seeds; all of which are used in the fermentation of red wine. White wine, on the other hand, is fermented with the juice alone of the grape, leading to vastly reduced levels of these heart-friendly substances.
However, like any alcoholic drink, red wine when drunk in excess can have a negative effect on the body. Alcohol itself is thought to have no nutritional value, and when consumed in more than small quantities is indeed toxic. Whilst one glass of red wine may be as good for the heart as a helping of green vegetables, nobody would advise replacing your five a day portions of fruit and vegetables with five glasses of red wine a day.
Whilst most of us occasionally drink more than what the experts tell us is ‘good for us’, any positive effects of red wine consumption are lost if you’re regularly bingeing on the stuff.
Many health experts advise that men should drink no more than two glasses of red wine a day, and women no more than one, but in truth there is not an exact òne size fits all approach to how much wine is good for each individual. Factors such as age, weight, and gender all play a part and whilstone person may be able to happily drink three glasses without feeling even tipsy, another might be light-headed after less than one glass.
What the experts do agree on, however, is that to enjoy the health benefits of red wine it is best to spread your units out over the week, rather than all in one go. A glass or two with dinner each night, for example, is likely to deliver positive results whereas abstaining for six days and then polishing off two bottles in one sitting will almost definitely not!
For those of us who do overdo it occasionally, however, try not to feel too bad – the alcohol units might be outstripping the benefits of all those heart healthy polyphenols, but at least you’ve been putting some sort of positive substance into the body – far more than if you were to have a heavy night out drinking vodka and fizzy mixer, for instance. Just don’t do it too often!
