A regular glass of red wine has been shown to improve cholesterol levels.
A glass of red wine with food was associated with a 14% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
In Israel in 2015, scientists took 224 teetotal diabetics and randomly allocated them to either drinking a medium-sized glass of red wine, a glass of white wine or a glass of mineral water with their evening meal – every night for two years.
The red wine drinkers came out on top, with significant improvements in their cholesterol scores and, perhaps surprisingly, in the quality of their sleep.
Red wine can help control our blood sugar levels
Some of the red wine drinkers in this study also enjoyed better blood sugar control.
This was no fluke: another study from Spain showed that drinking red wine can improve your body’s response to insulin, resulting in an ability to clear sugar from your blood more quickly.
It’s not just what you drink but when you drink it
Drinking red wine with a meal is much better for you than having it on its own.
According to a recent longitudinal study, where researchers followed 312,000 people for an average of eleven years, a glass with food was associated with a 14% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. It was only protective if you drank with the meal (and with moderation).
A glass of the grape can be great for the gut
Dr Tim Spector, Professor of Epidemiology at King’s College London, explains how red wine has been shown to boost our microbiome, according to data collected from nearly 5,000 people: “What we found was that the red wine drinkers had a healthier, more diverse gut microbiome than non-drinkers. And generally, alcohol drinkers had worse microbiomes than non-drinkers.”
The gut microbiome is one of those rare things in the human body that isn’t influenced by our genes but purely environmental and under dietary control, he states. And it seems “red wine might actually – in small, modest amounts – be good for our guts.”
