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Does white wine provide the same heart benefits as red wine?

On Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Maybe not all the benefits related to red wine's purported protection against cardiovascular disease, but white wine probably also delivers some benefits since it contains alcohol. While red wine clearly has more antioxidants (reds are made from the whole grape including skin and often seeds) than white wine and other sources of alcohol, there is still no clear evidence that red wine is better for your health than other delivery systems of alcohol including white wine. This is because moderate alcohol consumption from any source delivers similar benefits. The heart benefits that may occur with wine start with just 1 glass a day for women and 1-2 glasses for men.

The alcohol and red wine specific substances including antioxidants such as the flavonoid resveratrol (not found in appreciable amounts in white) may help prevent heart disease by increasing levels of "good" cholesterol, reducing inflammation, increasing nitric oxide bioavailability, inhibition of fat cell proliferation, and protecting against artery damage.

Moderate alcohol consumption associated with health benefits is considered 2 drinks/day for men; 1 for women. One drink contains 14 grams of alcohol meaning: one 12 oz beer (5% alcohol), one 5 oz glass of wine (12%) and one 1.5 oz of hard liquor (40% or 80 proof) are each one drink. The down side is that moderate drinking was recently associated with increased risk of breast cancer in women.