In the last few months there have been more articles about wine health in the press, so I thought to sum these up in case anyone has missed them. There is abundant literature on the actual wine and grape juice properties for someone who is interested, these are just the latest articles in the series.
For a long time, red wine has been associated with various health benefits, such as against heart disease, cancer, or perhaps even more related to the actual grapes – the flavonoid or antioxidants properties. These are perhaps some of the reasons why many say that drinking one glass of red wine a day will increase health benefits, in any case the moderation in drinking is definitely important.
Teeth and wine – latest studies
White wine?
One of these recent articles was that white wine is bad for the teeth. This has been known, similarly as for some other drinks, but here it was clarified that it was the pH, not the alcohol which affects the teeth. The solution seems to be the food and wine pairing, such as with cheese, which anyhow enhances the tastes and produces a more enjoyable experience.
Red wine?
It is interesting that just one month later, an article has been published stating that actually red wine is good for the teeth. This would show that chemicals in red wine stop the harmful bacteria from sticking to the teeth, according to the Italian scientists.
The old question – Wine and headache
People get the so called wine headache with many varying reasons. This is an ongoing debate where people have strong opinions for one or the other wine, yet many contradicting viewpoints make the matter unclear. Wine types which cause headache can vary from dry white to red, to wine from a certain country or region. Therefore the actual reason for the headache is not known for sure.
People often say that the headache comes from the sulphites in white wine, or the tannins from certain red wines. Each wine enthusiast can do their own experiments however, to see if it is actually the certain fragrances of white wine, or perhaps the different tannins in Cabernet or Syrah. On the other hand, the sulphites can be greatly reduced by purchasing from certain natural winemakers, who use minimal added sulphur. Or as some have suggested, if this were the cause, then many other fruits would cause a headache.
One explanation from expert is simply that wine headache is due to an association of a previous bad experience or over-consumption of a certain type of wine in the past.
However we suggest that if you want to be on the sure side of things, try to experiment with natural red wines, they are more healthy for you, don’t cause as much of a headache*, are better for the environment, and most importantly are an interesting change in taste. Additionally sulphur can cause alergies or just a bad taste if used in excess.
