RED WINE PROMOTES BETTER GUT HEALTH
RED WINE PROMOTES BETTER GUT HEALTH
Check out this article from Science Daily about a study published in August in the premier journal, Gastroenterology. Researchers in London found that moderate consumption of red wine helped to promote better diversity within the gut microbiome, which could contribute to red wine’s many reported health benefits.
Science News: Red wine benefits linked to better gut health, study finds
“A new study from King’s has found that people who drank red wine had an increased gut microbiota diversity (a sign of gut health) compared to non-red wine drinkers as well as an association with lower levels of obesity and ‘bad’ cholesterol.”
“A team of researchers from the Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology at King’s explored the effect of beer, cider, red wine, white wine and spirits on the gut microbiome (GM) and subsequent health in a group of 916 UK female twins. They found that the GM of red wine drinkers was more diverse compared to non-red wine drinkers. This was not observed with white wine, beer or spirits consumption.”
First author of the study, Dr Caroline Le Roy said: “While we have long known of the unexplained benefits of red wine on heart health, this study shows that moderate red wine consumption is associated with greater diversity and a healthier gut microbiota that partly explain its long debated beneficial effects on health.”
“The microbiome is the collection of microorganisms in an environment and plays an important role in human health. An imbalance of ‘good’ microbes compared to ‘bad’ in the gut can lead to adverse health outcomes such as reduced immune system, weight gain or high cholesterol. A person’s gut microbiome with a higher number of different bacterial species is considered a marker of gut health.”
“The authors believe the main reason for the association is due to the many polyphenols in red wine. Polyphenols are defense chemicals naturally present in many fruits and vegetables. They have many beneficial properties (including antioxidants) and mainly act as a fuel for the microbes present in our system.”
“Although we observed an association between red wine consumption and the gut microbiota diversity, drinking red wine rarely, such as once every two weeks, seems to be enough to observe an effect. If you must choose one alcoholic drink today, red wine is the one to pick as it seems to potentially exert a beneficial effect on you and your gut microbes, which in turn may also help weight and risk of heart disease. However, it is still advised to consume alcohol with moderation,” added Dr Le Roy.
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