Red wine has long been seen as the healthiest type of alcohol, but does science back that up? Eric Rimm, professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and other experts explored the evidence in a Dec. 30 Washington Post article.
Claims around red wine’s health benefits focus on compounds it contains called polyphenols, which are known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. But while red wine does contain more polyphenols than white wine, it does not contain enough to give it a health advantage.
“The concentrations are sufficiently low that you would have to drink more than moderate amounts to truly get that much more benefit from the polyphenols in red wine,” Rimm said in the article. He listed other sources of polyphenols including dark berries such blueberries, black or green tea, and dark chocolate.
The article also noted that drinking red wine may cause headaches and allergy-like symptoms in people sensitive to the tannins or sulfites it contains.
Even moderate drinking of any type of alcohol (one daily drink for a woman and two for a man) has been linked to increased risk of developing certain cancers and other negative health outcomes.
