Red wine health benefits 'overhyped'

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27371546

by mrfusion • 12 years ago

61 34 12 years ago

bbc.com

XorNot• 12 years ago

Duh. We all knew what this was really about when we started talking about it.

antidaily• 12 years ago

Everything in moderation. Including moderation.

cema• 12 years ago

Who is the moderator?

dredmorbius• 12 years ago

Lost Horizon. Very good.

blt• 12 years ago

Big f'in surprise. Any instance of "X food substance will make you healthier all by itself" is bullshit.

a8da6b0c91d• 12 years ago

Well in rat experiments a little bit of alcohol in their water makes them live longer. The supposed mechanism is that alcohol helps keep intestinal bacteria in check and reduces endotoxin absorption.

There are various other reasons to think that in most people light alcohol intake is protective. I don't think wine has anything to do with it. The safest drink would be a high quality vodka.

mgcross• 12 years ago

The vodka would need to be diluted prior to ingestion to qualify as safe.

doktrin• 12 years ago

If I understood the article correctly, a more appropriate title would be "Resveratrol health benefits 'overhyped'* :

Studies have shown that consumption of red wine, dark chocolate and berries reduces inflammation, leading researchers to speculate that their common ingredient, resveratrol, explains why.
He says any benefits of drinking wine or eating dark chocolate or berries, if they are there, must come from other shared ingredients. And it's not clear how much you might need to eat or drink.
"These are complex foods, and all we really know from our study is that the benefits are probably not due to resveratrol."

toby• 12 years ago

"Many studies have sought to explain why there is a low incidence of heart disease in France, despite many of its inhabitants eating a high-fat diet."

It's funny that this is where this theory came from. It was unfathomable at the time that maybe we were wrong about dietary fat.

prawks• 12 years ago

And the article is furthering the opinion that a high-fat diet causes heart disease by including that snippet.

shanev• 12 years ago

Apparently it still is unfathomable that fat may actually be good for you since that sentence was included in the article.

cwilson2• 12 years ago

It always surprises me when people focus on one small part of a diet that they hope is some kind of super-cure (or in this case, they want an excuse to drink red wine more often). Of course red wine on it's own isn't going to do anything for you, it's your entire diet and lifestyle that matters. Look at the real reasons (which studies like this one do not mention at all) the French likely have less heart disease and are in better shape than most Americans:

- They eat significantly smaller portions

- They take much longer to eat their meals (resulting in eating much less, because you know you're full)

- There is a focus on quality food and cooking, which results in better ingredients used

- The focus on quality means a focus on freshness, which leads to less processed food (especially refined carbs) being consumed

- The french walk and ride bikes much more than their average American counterpart

giarc2• 12 years ago

There's a book that covers this nicely. It's written by a women that moved from Vancouver BC (although us Canadians hate to admit it, we eat like Americans) to France with her French husband. It covers the realm of French culture surrounding eating.

The most interesting part to me was the school lunches. It is frowned upon to send your kid to school with a lunch. Kids are expected to eat what is given to them, whatever the cafeteria staff decide to prepare.

http://www.amazon.com/French-Kids-Eat-Everything-Discovered/...

graeme• 12 years ago

I taught English in a French school. The cafeteria lunches, at least in my region, were excellent.

You had a baguette and salad, an appetizer, a main course, and a desert. Some schools served wine.

All the meals were very well done with sauces and fresh ingredients. Nothing processed, everything was cooked from scratch. Beats what most people in North America make on their own.

nraynaud• 12 years ago

About the refined carbs: bread is a staple of French food. And there is even an historic stigma around non-white bread (bread that's not from refined flour). Eating white bread was what everybody was striving for, a sign of having made it (18th, 19th centuries). During the whole 20th century, I think French people ate white bread by a vast majority. Later came the trend of various grains and toast size stuff, from Germany (now cereal count is like razor blades, in a supermarket I found a 7 cereals bread).

edit: I'm not really answering to the topic at hand, being an obese French guy I'm not in a position to teach anyone on dietary advice.

virtualwhys• 12 years ago

You forgot a few:

- The French smoke like chimneys

- Drink some form of alcohol daily

- Are dedicated carnivores (vegetarians are rare)

I come here a few months a year (south of France) and it always amazes me how healthy everyone appears to be despite the excess of "sin" the French revel in.

Lifestyle obviously comes into play in terms of longevity (I believe the world's oldest woman was French and she smoked moderately into her 100s). In other words, the phrase, "work before pleasure", very likely did not originate in France.

davidw• 12 years ago

- The French smoke like chimneys

In Italy, this is actually changing fairly quickly. 10+ years ago, they banned smoking indoors, and I figure that, like a lot of rules here, people would sort of pay attention for a few weeks and then gradually ignore it, but the reality is that it's actually been fairly strictly enforced/followed, and people are happy with the results. Smoking is still more common than in the US, but diminishing.

cwilson2• 12 years ago

Something I completely forgot to mention was stress (I realize this is now 24 hours and no one will probably read this). I have a great aunt who lived to be 104, and her secret to long life was the lack of stress. She drank, smoked, and ate whatever she wanted, but she lived in a hotel almost her entire life (she owned a floor in said hotel), never had kids, and only worked in her younger days. This has nothing to do with the French, but I think is applicable.

thret• 12 years ago

There is quite a pleasant little recipe book, 'French Women Don't Get Fat' that correlates nicely with your points.

I'd expect people who eat a piece of chocolate with coffee and have a glass of wine with their meals are simply happier and less stressed overall.

guelo• 12 years ago

I always figured that was just something winos had latched onto to make themselves feel good. Same with potheads touting marijuana's non-toxicity.

wwweston• 12 years ago

Meanwhile:

"When it comes to cancer, no amount of alcohol is safe."

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/824237

qianyilong• 12 years ago

Huh fascinating. Thanks for the link. For everyone that dismisses this article because it requires a login you can create a free account and they will let you in.

alxv• 12 years ago

You can read the article if you come from a Google search.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.medscape.com%2F...

quannah• 12 years ago

Version without login: http://www.meltingmama.net/files/noamountofalcoholissafe.pdf

debt• 12 years ago

Also alcohol is pretty costly in terms of our economy:

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/10report/chap06c.pdf

neduma• 12 years ago

Along the lines, I heard that cheap wines ( probably cheap red wines, which you can get from Trader Joe) are more healthier then costly wines.

maerF0x0• 12 years ago

most of what I've read that speaks of health benefits (cancer free + longevity) also mention that you'd have to get the resveratrol from a supplement because its unhealthy to drink the large number of glasses of wine per day.

eg: "The Linus Pauling Institute has an interesting table that displays the resveratrol levels of various wines, showing that an average glass of red wine will range from 0.2 to 2.0 mg per glass of wine. In contrast, the typical resveratrol supplement contains anywhere from 100 mg of resveratrol to 500 mg of resveratrol per capsule" --- http://wine.about.com/od/wineandhealth/a/Red-Wine-And-Resver...

orthecreedence• 12 years ago

As is yoga, gluten free foods (for 99% of people who think they need it), antioxidants, etc.

In general if you hear five people a day tell you how "X changed my life!!1" it's probably bullshit mixed with a pinch of placebo.

Want to have a good life and be healthy? Spend more time outside, avoid long commutes, take long breaks, do things you like doing whenever possible, value yourself and your time, and don't take shit from people. This way even if you do die young, you'll die with a smile.

greenmountin• 12 years ago

It was kind of surprising to hear how just fraudulent the research on reservatrol (characteristic red wine chemical) was. The guy was a regular feature[1] on Retraction Watch until he passed away...

[1] http://retractionwatch.com/category/by-author/dipak-das/

Red wine health benefits 'overhyped'

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