We have read innumerable articles on wine benefits and risks. Like the rest of alcoholic beverages, the consumption of wine, especially excessive consumption (but not only), has been linked to diverse health problems, from liver problems to cancer. On the other hand, wine also contains beneficial compounds for our health, although these benefits do not necessarily compensate for risks.
Analyzing the risk. Of course not all alcoholic beverages have the same impact on our health, and even not all wines have to affect us the same. Now a group of researchers He has studied If red wine is healthier than white, focusing on the impact of these drinks on our risk of cancer.
The answer obtained is not. Not only did they find differences between the effects of one or another type of wines on the general risk of cancer, they did not find any effect of the consumption of one and the other came on this risk. They did find differences when studying the impact of white wine on skin cancer.
Alcohol and cancer. Alcohol is considered a hallucinogen of group 1, that is, a substance linked to the development of human cancer. The reason is in the fact that our body, when metabolizing ethanol, transforms it into potentially harmful compounds for proteins and DNA, which increases the risk of cancer.
Despite this, there is some notion that red wine is healthier, at least compared to white wine.
42 studies. The team conducted a meta -analysis, a quantitative study that explores the results of previous studies to weigh possible discrepancies between them. He did it by taking 42 observational studies, among which they added a total of 96,000 participants.
This analysis of scientific literature did not detect significant impacts on the risk of cancer associated with wine consumption, regardless of its color. The details of the analysis were Published in an article In the magazine Nutrients.
The case of skin cancer. Yes they detected a difference that was manifested in the long term in the case of skin cancer: the consumption of white wine was related to a 22% increase in the risk of suffering from this type of cancer with respect to the consumption of red wine.
“The results of our meta -analysis did not reveal any significant difference between red wine and white wine in general,” explained in a press release Eunyoung Cho, who collided the study. “However, we observe a distinction in regards to the risk of skin cancer. Specifically, the consumption of white wine, but not that of red, was associated with an increase in the risk of skin cancer. ”
The team admitted not to know what this difference could cause. The generic consumption of wine could be linked to the possibility that those who consume wine are more likely to activities that are linked to skin cancer such as sunbathing. The problem is that this would not explain the difference between the type of preferred wine.
Is it then good wine? It is necessary to have caution when interpreting the results in this regard since meta -analysis only analyzes global results of previous studies. In some contexts, such as the American, wine is a drink linked to Socio -economic situations more favorable.
In this type of contexts, wine consumption can also be correlated with greater care in other aspects: healthier food, physical exercise … etc. This could do That the carcinogenic effect of alcohol contained in the wine is compensated, so that, globally, its impact cannot be appreciated through the statistical tools used.
Image | Zachariah Hagy