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So Is Red Wine Healthy Or Not?

You’re standing in line at the store, scrolling down your feed when you see a post about the benefits of drinking red wine. An alcoholic beverage that’s actually good for you? Sold. You don’t even need to read the story. And anyway, you know red wine is heart-healthy—that party line spills from your aunt’s merlot-stained mouth every Thanksgiving after someone comments on her third glass. Before you leave check-out to grab ten bottles, though, read the story. Read all the stories. Or at least just read this.

What you’ve heard:

One week you read that wine is healthy for you. The next week you read it's not. You’re beginning to suspect people just like doing…

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Featured

 How Red Wine Lost Its Health Halo

For a glorious decade or two, the drink was lauded as good for the heart. What happened?

 What’s the truth about alcohol’s benefits and risks? with Tim Stockwell

We have long heard the claims that a glass of red wine is good for your heart, but it turns out that the research that fueled this wisdom was actually skewed. Some studies made it appear like moderate drinkers were healthier than people who didn't drink at all, leading the public to believe that alcohol was healthier than it is. While drinking alcohol occasionally might not have catastrophic effects on your health, the data shows that even moderate drinking will reduce your life expectancy.

Articles of Interest

Alcohol Has Been Linked to Cancer. Why Is Red Wine Still Part of the Mediterranean Diet?

“There are definitely some people who think [red wine] should be removed, as no amount of alcohol is really considered to be safe,” Leah Barron, RD, CPT, a dietitian at The Baseline Lifestyle Company in New York, told Health. “But because the current research does suggest some benefit to red wine in moderation, it is a little complicated and something we need a lot more research on.”

Bad news, red wine drinkers: alcohol is only ever bad for your health

We needn’t be puritanical about having a drink, but we can no longer deny that it harms us, even in small quantities

Mixed Messaging on Red Wine: Separating Myth from Fact

Alcohol – especially wine – has an image as a heart-healthy choice, and fewer than 4 in 10 people are aware that alcohol poses a cancer risk. But it does, and the link should be of special concern to women since increased breast cancer risk starts at relatively low amounts of alcohol.

Women and Alcohol: One Glass a Day Linked to Cancer

Even one small glass of wine or beer a day increases the risk of women developing breast cancer, according to a new report. Even the experts are surprised by the results.

A New Reason Why Red Wine May Be Better For You Than White

Many studies have shown that drinking wine, especially red wine, seems to have modest benefits for heart health, as long as you drink it in moderate amounts. A study published this week, though, offers a more worrisome message: white wine might increase your risk of skin cancer.

Could a chemical found in red grapes prevent bowel cancer?

Scientists, funded by Cancer Research UK, are finding out if an ingredient commonly found in red grapes could hold the answer to help prevent bowel cancer. The star ingredient is a chemical called resveratrol. It’s naturally found in the skin of red grapes, blueberries, raspberries and peanuts. It’s a polyphenol chemical, which means it’s rich in antioxidants. Naturally occurring antioxidants in our bodies can help prevent or delay oxidative stress, which is known to damage our cells.

Don't Buy Red Wine Because You Think It's Healthy

If you have cancer in your family, you might want to consider giving it up altogether.

Is Any Amount of Red Wine Good for You?

Research has been conflicted about whether any amount of any kind of alcohol can confer health benefits. See where experts currently land on this controversial subject.

Red wine's magic ingredient resveratrol has no health benefits

"With all the excitement about resveratrol protecting against heart disease and cancer and supposedly extending lifespan, we expected to see a positive association," says Richard Semba of Johns Hopkins, who served as the lead author. "So we were pretty surprised by the lack of one." This is the first long-term study on the effects of resveratrol on humans, but a few different short-term studies had come to the same conclusion.

Scientists say mystery of how red wine headaches occur may be solved

Researchers home in on phenolic flavonoids as culprit for headaches that come on soon after a glass or two.

Stay Young With The Health Benefits of Red Wine

While your health-freak friends spend hundreds of dollars on weird miracle fruit juices, you can sit back and relax. As it happens, your red wine habit might just be the key to staying young longer.

The truth about red wine's health benefits

So if there were anything special about red wine, you'd expect it to be because of the resveratrol. But there's little evidence that resveratrol is anything magical. Yes, there are animal studies showing that resveratrol can slow down aging and improve the metabolism of mice on high-fat diets. But a human would need to consume 1,000 liters of red wine in one sitting to reach the levels these mice were injected with (which, suffice it to say, is not recommended). And when researchers studied resveratrol levels in the urine of a sample of older folks, they found no association with any positive health effects.

Why does red wine make me feel sick?

The answer depends on your symptoms...

Your favorite drink can cause breast cancer – but most women in the US aren’t aware of alcohol’s health risks

Did you know that casual drinks with friends or having a “wine mom” moment to unwind could actually be nudging up your risk for breast cancer? It sounds like a buzzkill. But it’s a truth that many might not know: Alcohol actually causes breast cancer.

Resources

Is Red Wine Actually Good For You? Experts Weigh In

“Alcohol, and therefore alcoholic drinks including red wine, is not good for us,” says Dr Federica Amati, public health nutritionist, medical scientist, and author of Recipes for a Better Menopause. “As with everything we eat and drink, there is nuance–drinking red wine is part of a much bigger picture of the things we do, eat and drink throughout our lives.”