Talks about the benefits of red wine began with the “French paradox”. Scientists noticed that the inhabitants of this country eat a lot of fatty food and have high cholesterol, but at the same time they suffer from heart disease less often than other nations with a similar type of diet. Since they drink red wine quite often in France, it was surmised that it’s all about it.
Numerous studies on this drink and its constituents have indeed shown some benefit. However, declaring red wine a healing elixir is definitely not a good idea.
What is useful in red wine
Red wine contains different types of polyphenols – chemical compounds that work as antioxidants in the human body. The drink contains flavonoids catechins, quercetin, and anthocyanins. And also another class of polyphenols – stilbenes. Of the latter, resveratrol has gained the greatest popularity.
Supplements with this substance improve blood pressure and cerebral vascular function. However, we are talking about pure resveratrol, without all the other components of red wine. And the amount is much higher than what can be obtained from an alcoholic beverage.
Moreover, resveratrol, like other polyphenols, has low bioavailability. That is, once in the body, it is very quickly converted into bound forms and cannot directly destroy free radicals – reactive oxygen species (ROS) that damage cells.
But despite this, plant antioxidants can be beneficial. For example, if you wash down fatty foods with wine, polyphenols in the stomach can counteract lipid oxidation. And also activate intracellular signalling pathways that will inhibit inflammation, protect against reactive oxygen species and DNA damage.
In other words, polyphenols do not destroy harmful free radicals on their own, but help the body to produce antioxidants, which then deal with RFK.
But it is one thing to study individual components of red wine, and quite another to understand the health effects of this cocktail of polyphenols and alcohol.
Is red wine really good for your health
Strange as it may seem, at least part of the health benefits of red wine can be attributed to its alcohol content. In moderate doses, ethanol increases the amount of good cholesterol and “thins” the blood, reducing the risk of blood clots. In a study with data from almost 14 thousand elderly Americans over 23 years, it was calculated that moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of death by 15%, while the type of drink does not matter.
In another they checked the data of 38 thousand men and found out that moderate drinkers have a much lower risk of myocardial infarction than non-drinkers. And it does not matter what kind of alcohol they used, whether they drank 10 or 30 grams of alcohol a day.
At the same time, there is other evidence in favour of red wine. In a cohort study of 24,500 Danes aged 20 to 98 years, they found that moderate wine consumption reduced the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer much more than complete abstinence from alcohol or other drinks with ethanol. What’s more, even alcohol-dependent people who chose wine had a lower risk of dying than those who drank other alcohol.
A study with data from 18,000 Spaniards over 12 years found that moderate alcohol consumption reduced the risk of death by an average of 25 per cent, but only if you drink it the “Mediterranean way” – choosing wine, mostly red, not exceeding a limit of 1-2 servings a day and drinking it with meals.
A small Spanish experiment found that two weeks of drinking two glasses of red wine a day with meals increased antioxidant production and the expression of genes that promote longevity.
In a cohort study of people from three countries, they noted that wine drinkers who drank 1-2 servings a day had lower levels of inflammation than those who preferred beer or didn’t drink at all.
In yet another one found that it is red wine promotes the expression of genes responsible for the production of antioxidants. Participants of the experiment drank different alcoholic beverages together with food or on an empty stomach. The production of useful substances increased when they consumed red wine. On the contrary, white wine and vodka, especially with fatty foods, prevented the increase in protection against oxidative stress.
In another similar study, a Mediterranean diet-style meal combined with 250ml of red wine was the most beneficial. When alcohol was drunk on an empty stomach, the benefits were less.
So, in moderation and in combination with healthy food, red wine can indeed be beneficial.
Can red wine do any harm
In large doses, red wine is no less dangerous than any other alcohol. No amount of polyphenols will help if you drink more than two servings a day.
Excessive alcohol consumption threatens the development of hypertension and diseases of the cardiovascular system, liver and digestive tract. The risk of cancer increases, the immune system weakens, there are problems with memory and attention, there are mental disorders – anxiety and depression.
So if you drink regularly and a lot, it makes no sense to change your usual 0.5 litres of cognac or a couple of litres of beer for a bottle of red wine. You will get much more benefit by giving up alcohol altogether.
