Wine is an alcoholic beverage that can have some positive and other negative effects. The health benefits of wine are often attributed to polyphenols, compounds that can prevent oxidation and have anti-inflammatory effects. We review some myths about wine and what the experts say about it.
Myth 1. Non-alcoholic wine has no benefits
The Source of Nutrition of Harvard points out that dealcoholized wine preserves the content of polyphenols. So you can enjoy its beneficial antioxidants without the negative effects of alcohol.
Myth 2. Wine gives you the worst hangovers or doesn’t give you a hangover
Wine, like other alcoholic beverages, can cause a hangover since, in the body, alcohol converts into acetaldehyde, which is a toxic substance and is one of the main causes of hangover symptoms.
In some people, wine, unlike clear drinks, can cause a hangover more often. Darker spirits tend to have higher levels of congeners than light spirits. Congeners are compounds, other than ethyl alcohol, that are produced during fermentation and that contribute to the taste and smell of alcoholic beverages.
Myth 3. Wine keeps you young
Antioxidants may help protect against accelerated aging from free radical damage. The resveratrol in grapes may have a double effect to help fight premature skin aging: by neutralizing free radicals and increasing antioxidant levels, so the skin can better defend itself and repair itself.
Drinking a lot of wine to stay young could have the opposite effect. Drinking five large glasses of wine or eight pints of beer a week can damage DNA and lead to premature aging, suggests research by scientists at the University of Oxford and just published in Molecular Psychiatry.
Myth 4. Wine does not cause cancer
The Centers for Disease Control and Disease Prevention warn that all alcoholic beverages, including red and white wine, are linked to cancer. The more you drink, the higher your risk of cancer.
Myth 5. Wine is good for your heart health
The American Wine Association Heart Health (AHA) do not recommend drinking alcohol, including wine, to benefit heart health. For those who drink, he suggests moderation. Alcohol can affect the heart in various ways.
There is an assumption that red wine may be good for the heart because it contains antioxidants such as resveratrol. “It could be that wine drinkers are more likely to have a healthier lifestyle and a healthier diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, which is known to be cardioprotective,” said Dr. Robert Kloner, a scientist at the Huntington Medical Research Institutes. and professor of medicine at the University of Southern California.
Can cause high blood pressure and promote arrhythmias. “It can cause cardiomyopathy where alcohol is really toxic to the heart muscle cells and that can lead to heart failure,” Kloner says.
Myth 6. Red wine is the only source of resveratrol
Some red wine polyphenols include resveratrol, quercetin and epicatechins. Harvard Health indicates that resveratrol is found in foods such as peanuts, pistachios, grapes, red and white wine, blueberries, cranberries, and even cocoa and dark chocolate.
Harvard indicates increasing intake from one to two daily servings of tea, coffee, berries, onions or apples provide a much higher amount of polyphenols than having an extra glass of red wine.
It may interest you:
– Hard seltzers: how good they are for your body
–Why some people don’t get hangovers
–10 ways in which alcohol affects your body