French
health minister Agnès Buzyn recently created a major buzzkill across the
winemaking world by denouncing claims that wine could be beneficial and
increase longevity. Ms. Buzyn, a hematologist, broke with wine loving President
Emmanuel Macron, saying in a television interview that “The French population
is led to believe that wine protects them, that it offers benefits that other
alcohol does not. Scientifically, wine is an alcohol like any other.” This is
true only in the narrowest sense, and wrong in the larger sense. Here’s why:
Yes, it’s
technically accurate to state that alcohol (ethanol) distilled from wine, beer
or spirits is the same, but the conclusion that all beverages are equally
detrimental is fallacious. We don’t consume the alcohol independently of the
source. The benefits of wine are attached to the lifestyle of moderate
consumption with meals; the pattern
of drinking matters.
But to the
larger point, wine’s health benefits are not exclusively derived from lifestyle
choices. The presence of an extensive family of antioxidant polyphenols in wine
provides unique benefits to health. Though resveratrol gets most of the credit,
these compounds work synergistically, amplifying the effects. This was shown in
an interesting study[i]
finding that resveratrol had pro-oxidant
effects at low concentrations, anti-oxidant
effects at high concentrations, but exhibited antioxidant effects at all
concentrations in the presence of red wine polyphenols. What’s more, other
studies[ii]
find that these polyphenols and associated antioxidant activity are at least
twice as potent in wine and wine grapes as compared to table grapes and juice.
Wine is not just grape juice with alcohol.
Which begs
the question: If wine has more antioxidants than grape juice, isn’t the benefit
cancelled by alcohol? In order to answer that, consider that the alcohol comes
from sugars, so unfermented grape juice is a high-sugar drink. As a source of
calories, alcohol is in many ways more favorable (scientifically speaking.)
There is no spike in blood sugar levels with wine (low glycemic index) which is
why diabetics for example handle alcohol calories from wine without problems.
Indeed, studies show improvement in blood sugar control when wine is introduced
into the diet for type 2 diabetics.
So I take
issue with Dr. Buzyn and others trying to debunk the French paradox. At least
her boss sees it differently; in a 2016 interview Macron stated “I was raised
by my grandparents who used to say that ‘red wine is an antioxidant.’ There was
no guilt,” he said. “Wine is not a type of alcohol one drinks to get drunk, but
to be well at the table.” The way I see it, that’s closer to the scientific
truth.
[i]
Cavallini G, Straniero S, Donati A, Bergamini E. Resveratrol requires red wine
polyphenols for optimum antioxidant activity. J Nutr Health Aging
2016;20(5):540-5.
[ii]
Liang Z, Cheng L, Zhong GY, Liu RH. Antioxidant and antiproliferative
activities of twenty-four Vitis vinifera grapes. PLoS One. 2014 Aug
18;9(8):e105146.
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