Moderate wine drinkers face fewer health risks than teetotalers and heavy drinkers

An old motto is back in fashion — "there is a measure in all things" — and this seems particularly true for wine.

This is the finding of an Italian study promoting responsible drinking, which demonstrates that those who drink in moderation (red wine in particular) face lower health risks than those who do not drink at all and, of course, than "heavy drinkers".

The research highlights how a "reasonable" consumption of red wine for two weeks can have an inhibitory effect on thrombosis risk (in 50% of cases it inhibits the platelet aggregation that causes blood clots) and, by raising 'good cholesterol', counteracts hypertension.

Another study recently published in The Lancet, authored by two Italians (Roberto Ferrari and Claudio Rapezzi), states that wine drinkers, when compared with those who favour beer on a daily basis, have healthier eating habits, including the consumption of fish, oil and cereals, and therefore closer to the Mediterranean diet.

On this point, the president of Enoteca Italiana, Claudio Galletti, said that the results of the seminar ''will help communicate the message that our organization has been promoting for almost eighty years: moderate drinking as an integral part of a proper diet'' .

SOURCE Article: ANSA