[OG Comment: When I heard about this study, I thought, what about all the French, Spanish, Italians, Greeks, Hungarians and others who regularly drink wine? It's not just the educated upper crust in those countries, it's the illiterate peasant too. And studies show that the French in particular, as well as Mediterranean natives, have less heart disease than Americans and Brits. This study may prove that educated Danes are healthier than not-so-educated Danes--duh--but that's all. 'Ere, 'ave a drinkie.]

Pioneer Planet

Published: Monday, August 13, 2001

Wine's benefits may lie in who drinks it Demographic is smarter, richer, more educated

BY DEANNA BELLANDI

CHICAGO -- While studies suggest wine drinkers might be healthier, it may have nothing to do with knowing the difference between a full-bodied cabernet and a bold little merlot.

A new study of young Danish adults found that wine drinkers generally are smarter, richer and more educated -- all factors that can be associated with better health -- than those who don't drink wine.

"People who have high IQs, who come from high socio-economic status, who have high education are generally healthier than people who are not," said June Reinisch, director emeritus of The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University and one of the study's authors.

The study published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine included 363 men and 330 women between the ages of 29 and 34. It compared wine drinkers and beer drinkers, those who abstain and those who drink both. Research was done between 1990 and 1994.

Those studied were chosen from among a group of all the children born at a major Copenhagen hospital between 1959 and 1961 that researchers have studied over the years.

Other Danish studies that showed health benefits from drinking wine were based on data collected when few in the traditionally beer-drinking country regularly drank wine. This study wanted to see if other factors might help explain the apparent benefits.

Dr. Tedd Goldfinger, a cardiologist in Tucson, Ariz., who has studied alcohol consumption and heart health, said the benefits of drinking wine should not be discounted.

"Clearly there's benefit from wine consumption," said Goldfinger, who was not involved in the Danish study.

Goldfinger said alcohol can decrease the tendency of blood to clot and cause heart attacks, and raise good cholesterol levels.

The benefits of drinking a glass of red wine have been touted over the past decade after the discovery of the "French paradox" -- that the French had low rates of heart disease despite high-cholesterol diets. Studies have shown the key may be the glass or two of red table wine at dinner.

But some scientists, including the American Heart Association's Nutrition Committee, have cautioned that drinking wine is not the most proven way to improve heart health. Eat healthfully, exercise regularly and maintain a healthy weight, the group advises.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

Answers

I'm starting to think that some of these studies are just "junk science," done to benefit whomever commissions them. Drink wine! don't drink wine! Only men should drink wine! Or how about eggs? Eat eggs -- nature's most perfect food! Eggs elevate cholestrol. Eat only the whites! Blah, blah, blah.

In my opinion, anything ingested to excess is going to cause problems, whether it be eggs or carrots! If one like coffe or wine or butter, have some! Just don't OD on it.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

I have to believe there's something in the "wine is good for you" thought. For as long as I can remember old gits in Britain, especially women, have had a nip or two of "fortified wine" or sherry during the day and evening. It was always thought to be A Good Thing. Guinness had a slogan (may still have), "Guinness is good for you," and lots of old gits drank it. When you see those 80-plus years old boozers at the pub (usually with an ancient dog lapping at a saucer of the stuff), you have to believe there's something healthy about a tipple or two.

In an old book on diabetes, it says one or two 2-ounce servings of alcohol during the day are Not A Bad Thing. The book explains that insulin is not needed to process the alcohol (oh if only that were true of banana splits!) so the alcohol can provide pure energy. However, there is a caution that one has to be careful because low blood sugar can result. This is dangerous because low blood sugar symptoms resemble inebriation and if you're found staggering or collpased with the smell of Mad Dog 20/20 on your breath, well. . .

So I think I'm going to try a bit of Harvey's later, see if I can whip up enough energy to do something around here (with a piece of chocolate close by, of course).

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

Chocolate? did I hear someone mention chocolate?

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

I love wine, but simply can't drink it, outside of an occassional glass... it leaves me very dehydrated, someone once told me wine had a high level of antihistamines.

I can drink beer, and never feel any health effects, outside of having to pee a lot. I drink wine, even just a couple of glasses (not bottles wiseguys), and I feel like crap the next day, with blood- shot eyes, irritable bowels, in general not good...

Probably something in it that isn't in beer that my system just doesn't like at all... reds and blushes are the worst

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

It's probably that California stuff...

Try some real wine. ROTFL

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

Carl, I find that the really cheap champagne J. Roget can be drunk in fairly copious quantities without too many deleterious after-effects. The drier, the better--less sugar, fewer sulphites. Red wine was awful for me, particularly the heavy stuff like chianti. Ugh!

Course I rarely drink at all these days (sigh). Last time was New Year's, I think.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

I had understood the benefits of wine to be from the red grapes, that it had nothing to do with the alcohol content.

Carl, I think I have problems with severe dehydration when I drink as well, more likely with wine. Some of my worst hangovers.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

Maybe I didn't get the really awful thirst because I used to mix the cheap bubbly with half orange-peach juice.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

Oh wine....

Carl, it is the sulfates in the wine that do it to you, and grape wines have more than fruit wines.

I make mostly fruit wines, and don't seem to have any illness the next day unless I take to much. (Sometimes I have!)

The red wines have the best health benefits to you, but also contain the most sulfites. That is why they say a glass or two a day.

Sheeple - who cannot wait to get her wine moved and set up in its new home. Now my break is over and I must continue to pack the truck!

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001

My father cooks with grapeseed oil (not rapeseed) but I've never seen it here. Must be an EU thing. I wonder if it has the same good properties?

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001