Insights: Is wine good for you?

There is little evidence that drinking wine or other alcohol will improve the health of younger people, who are less at risk of heart disease in the first place.

There’s long been discussion about the risks and rewards that drinking wine has on your health.

So what’s true and what’s not? In reality ‘moderate’ drinking (one or two units a day) does seem to offer some protection against heart disease - but primarily for men aged over 40 and post-menopausal women (and only when consumption is limited to five units a week - that’s just two standard glasses of wine).

There is little evidence that drinking wine or other alcohol will improve the health of younger people, who are less at risk of heart disease in the first place.

According to the British Heart Foundation, very low levels of alcohol consumption may have some protective effects on the heart for some people, but there are better ways to achieve this, such as taking regular exercise, quitting smoking, following a healthy, balanced diet and addressing other risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

To avoid risk to your health if you do drink most weeks:

1. Men and women are advised not to regularly drink more than 14 units a week ( five 250 ml glasses of wine/ 1 1/2 bottles of wine).

2. If you do drink as much as 14 units a week, spread your drinking over three days or more, whilst enjoying some alcohol-free days during the week.

But before you go and pour your wine collection down the sink - relax. It really is true that wine - particularly red wine - does contain several antioxidants, such as quercetin and resveratrol, which may play a part in helping to prevent heart disease and cancer.