It looks like white wine may have gotten a bad health rep for no good reason. White wine lovers – rejoice!
Throughout the years, scientists have documented the benefits of red wine — for heart health, cholesterol control and possibly even cancer prevention. But what about the white kind? The short answer is that the evidence supporting white wine’s health benefits, while still limited, is growing.
While previous studies on the elixir have been mostly focused on testing in animals or on testing the components of the drink itself, two recently published clinical trials found good news for white wine enthusiasts.
The first study, called In Vino Veritas involved tracking 146 subjects half of whom drank pinot noir, and half of whom drank a white chardonnay-pinot over the course of a year. The findings were presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting last year:
Those who worked out twice per week and drank wine — either kind — saw a significant improvement in cholesterol levels.
The second, published last Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, tracked 224 volunteers with type II diabetes who were asked to drink 150 mL of either white wine, red wine or mineral water (the control) with dinner every day for two years. The findings were promising for both red and white wine:
Moderate intake of wine as part of a healthy diet among those with well-controlled diabetes moderately decreases cardiometabolic risk.
Another interesting finding was that sleep quality improved in both wine groups as compared to the mineral water group.
So, for all those white wine enthusiasts who keep hearing that red wine is better for you, stick to your guns because the white stuff may be just as good, if not better when it comes to health benefits.