Does Red Wine Help You Live Longer? Here ’s What the Science Says

In the 1990s, some researchers observed that French people—despite eating lots of saturated fat—tended to have low rates of heart disease. Dubbing this phenomenon the “French paradox,” the researchers speculated that regular wine consumption may be protecting their hearts from disease. A little later, in the early-2000s, evidence began to pile up tying Mediterranean-style eating and drinking patterns with longer lifespans. One component of these diets that got a lot of attention was the consumption of wine—red wine, in particular. Even among people who ate healthy Mediterranean diets, those who also drank wine regularly and in moderate amounts—a glass or two a day, usually red and usually with meals—lived longer than heavier or lighter drinkers, some of the research concluded. One study found that middle-aged Italian men who drank up to five glasses of wine a day—almost all of it red—tended to live longer than men who drank more or less alcohol. Almost 30 years have passed since those early “red wine is good for you” studies came to light. While some newer research on saturated fat makes the French paradox seem a little less paradoxical—that is, there’s some disagreement about whether saturated is truly unhealthy—public and scientific interest in red wine’s longevity benefits is still strong. Unfortunately, the evidence supporting those benefits is mixed. For example, a 2017 review in ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Diet/Nutrition Longevity Source Type: news