Is wine healthy after all?

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There are repeated reports that wine, in particular, has a protective effect on the heart. Spanish researchers have also reached the same conclusion.

It is well known that alcohol is a neurotoxin. According to WHO figures, 2.6 million people worldwide die every year as a result of drinking.

In the past, studies have repeatedly suggested that moderate alcohol consumption can have a protective effect on the heart in particular. This is also the case in a new analysis from Spain.

A team from the University of Barcelona collected data from 1,232 participants. Their aim was to investigate the effects of the Mediterranean diet on the risk of heart disease.

What is a Mediterranean diet?
It consists of fresh and preferably unprocessed foods. It is based on vegetables, pulses, whole grain products, fruit, salads, fish and seafood, and cold-pressed olive oil. The main seasonings are Mediterranean herbs and garlic. On the other hand, meat, eggs, dairy products, white flour, salt, and sugar should only be consumed in small quantities. According to the German Heart Foundation, the Mediterranean diet has a positive effect on risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, and elevated blood sugar and blood lipid levels, thus helping to prevent cardiovascular diseases.

The test subjects suffered from type 2 diabetes or had risk factors such as smoking, high cholesterol levels, and high blood pressure and/or were overweight or obese. Many also had a family history of heart disease.

At the start of the study, they were, on average, 68 years old. They provided information about their diet, and the team measured the level of tartaric acid in their urine both at the beginning and at the end of the study. This provides information about the consumption of grapes and wine in the five to six days before the sample was taken.

Risk reduced by 50 percent
During the observation period of just under five years, there were 685 cases of cardiovascular disease (such as heart attack or stroke) in the group.

Those participants who consumed half a glass to one glass of wine a day in addition to the Mediterranean diet had half the risk of heart disease as those who did not drink alcohol at all. However, the effect disappeared when more than one glass of wine was consumed.

Experts are skeptical about the results of the study. “Although the study suggests that low to moderate wine consumption can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, opening a bottle of red wine is not a matter of course,” explained Tracy Parker, senior nutritionist at the British Heart Foundation.

People don’t usually measure wine accurately
There are far healthier ways than alcohol to protect the heart and general health, such as a balanced diet and regular exercise, as well as maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking.

Another point of criticism is that people do not usually measure the amount of wine they consume. This means that the recommended four ounces (approximately 120 milliliters, or more than half a glass of wine) is quickly exceeded.

“The wine paradox is a myth.”
“People often say ‘wine is good for the heart,’ but we also know that too much wine is ‘not good for the heart,’” said Paul Leeson, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Oxford. It is also important to note that the study’s results only showed an association, not a causal relationship.

“Perhaps the people who drank this amount of wine in the study also did other things that reduced their risk,” says Leeson’s objection. “For one thing, the study was done on people who also ate a heart-healthy diet. For another, maybe the health benefits of a glass of wine are only noticeable when it’s drunk with a plate of Mediterranean food?”

His colleague Naveed Sattar, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, is even clearer: “I would urge people to drink as little as possible if they want to live healthier lives. The wine paradox is a myth, and this article adds nothing new to what is already known.”

Addiction and health risk
In some countries and Austria, the following guidelines for low-risk alcohol consumption apply:

Women should drink a maximum of 16 grams of pure alcohol per day. For men, the recommended daily limit is 24 grams of pure alcohol

Other countries take a different approach. Since the beginning of 2023, for example, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction has been recommending abstaining from alcohol completely. “If you must drink at all, a maximum of two drinks per week is considered low-risk,” the alcohol guidelines state.