à votre santé: drinking to health

As has been mentioned in several classes, I worked on a new beverage this past summer at ABInBev. It was like Startup Garage for beverages, and on day 1, we were each given a problem statement to refine and use to create a new product. Ours was “I’m transitioning to a healthy lifestyle but still like an alcoholic beverage to relax and connect.” So we spent 11 weeks learning what people thought “health” meant in the context of an alcoholic beverage. And time and time again, we heard people talk about how wine was healthy and beer and liquor were not.

But it comes down to how you define “healthy”. Calorically speaking, wine and most beers have approximately equal calories and carbs (check out this infographic), despite common knowledge. Wine has more alcohol but you also drink it in smaller volumes.

But studies have shown that moderate alcohol consumption – and of wine in particular – does have health effects. So I spent some time this week learning more about what the current studies report.

• A recent two-year study by researchers at Ben-Gurion University reported that people who drank a glass of red wine nightly with dinner had significantly increased their levels of good HDL cholesterol and had a more beneficial cholesterol ratio compared to the group that drank water. They were also the only group to experience a significant drop in components of metabolic syndrome. They also found that who drank either red or white wine reported better sleep!
• A recent study by British Medical Journal has shown that research is mixed as to whether or not moderate alcohol improves or reduces chances of cancer

In these and other studies, what comes up again and again is the hypothesized and unconfirmed benefit of a molecule in red wine called resveratrol. Yet nevertheless, the jury is still out on the extent to which resveratrol helps reduce blood pressure, cancer, or have any impact on metabolism or lifespan. So I also spent a little time digging into this alleged miracle molecule.

What is resveratrol? It is a molecule produced by plants in response to injury or as a defense mechanism against pathogens, bacteria, or fungi.

Why is it in wine? Resveratrol is produced in the skin of grapes to protect it against fungal pathogens. Thus, when wine is fermented in its skins, it is released into the juice. The amount varies by varietal with Pinot noir reported to have some of the highest concentration of resveratrol.

Why red wine in particular? As we know, red wine is red because it’s fermented longer with the skins and stems of the grapes, and therefore it absorbs more of the resveratrol. White wine also has resveratrol, but in smaller quantities.

Where else can I get it? Peanuts have as much as 25% resveratrol as red wine! Cocoa power, cranberries, blueberries, raspberries, and lingonberry (another excuse for those Swedish meatballs in Ikea) also are reported to contain resveratrol. You can also get over-the-counter resveratrol supplements. But if you're in this class and anything like me, a glass of red wine still seems like the best source.