a glass or two for your health?
Wine, any bonafide foodies’ non-negotiable, but is it as healthy & age defying it’s touted to be?
We have all heard the message that 1-2 standard glasses of red wine daily can be a great, health promoting addition to your wellness regime, thanks, in part, to the French Paradox. On the other hand, we are also told that alcohol, of any kind, is not such a great idea if we want to defy ageing, optimise cardio metabolic health & an attenuate an expanding waistline. So let’s look at some facts concerning the world’s favourite crushed grape tipple.
Red wine contains Resveratrol (3,5,4′-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene), a stilbenoid polyphenol produced by plants under stress that is metabolised by the microbiome gut flora to confer a multitude of cardiovascular, metabolic & anti-ageing benefits. Red wine also contains catechin, epicatechin, quercetin, and anthocyanin; health promoting compounds found in coloured fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices & herbal medicines, along with a bounty of antioxidant potential. Red wine, however, also contains ethanol, a substance found to have not-so-great health outcomes, including:
Negative effects to gastrointestinal & microbiome health
Well-known adverse liver effects
Negative hormone effects for both males (decline in testosterone) & females (progesterone, oestrogen & menopause timing)
Potential weight gain (more correlation with high intake, spirits & cocktails)
Resveratrol was first isolated in the 1940’s fromVeratrum frandifolium O. Loes (White Hellebore), a plant used traditionally in Chinese & Japanese medicine. Today, there is excess of 70 plant species containing this health-promoting polyphenol including berries, peanuts, cocoa & grapes; grapes are thought to be a particularly good source due to the susceptibility of Vitis vinifera (grapes) to fungal attack; it’s putting up a good fight that stimulates resveratrol production.
So, back to red wine, yay or nay?
A recent scientific review of research to date, suggests that the multitude of beneficial plant compounds (polyphenols & antioxidants) may override any negative effects generally associated with ethanol ingestion, a limit of 400mL daily has shown to increase antioxidant status.
However, now for some downsides, at 7 calories per gram, alcohol of any kind can add a whole lot of energy with nil nutrition, so weight management can easily become derailed. Ethanol, from a any source, also interferes with sleep, delays fat oxidation, decreases muscle mass synthesis & easily leads to wine-worthy food morsels.
So, here it is, our final take on red wine:
Depending on your health goals, ≤ 400mL red wine daily does not seem to be directly problematic, its’ rich antioxidant & polyphenol content has a multitude of benefits. Just be sure to consider it into your nutrition & health picture as a whole:
Is your diet energy balanced?
Are you getting enough protein?
Are you consuming plenty of fibre & prebiotics from plant foods?
Are you sleeping well?
Are you moving your body daily?
Are you managing stress well? (and no, not with the use of alcohol)
If you are ticking these boxes, you are likely to experience overall great health outcomes & be buffered from any potential downsides. If not, the purposed ‘benefits‘ of red wine will not be significant enough to promote beneficial health outcomes alone. It is not a ‘health‘ beverage; in moderation, it’s possibly the ‘best‘ in the alcohol lineup, however the beneficial compounds it contains are present in many foods that will give you much better health & weight management outcomes.