Short term health effects of de-alcoholised red wine
The authors of a recent study state that health benefits of red wine are attributed to its high polyphenol content, but these claims are controversial due to potential alcohol-related harms. They carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify whether there are health benefits of de-alcoholised red wine. Researchers searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, PsycINFO and Web of Science for randomised controlled or cross-over trials and included 36 studies. Comparisons analysed were:
- de-alcoholised red wine versus red wine; and
- de-alcoholised red wine versus water.
Health outcomes included serum/plasma antioxidant capacity, cardiovascular function, immune function, liver function, metabolism, microbiome diversity and inflammatory markers. The results showed that de-alcoholised red wine was associated with increased serum/plasma antioxidant capacity and microbiome diversity compared to water but had less effect on microbiome diversity compared to red wine. No significant differences were observed regarding other health outcomes. De-alcoholised red wine may have some short-term health benefits in increasing serum/plasma antioxidant capacity and microbiome diversity, but the evidence is limited by small sample size, short-term follow-up, and heterogeneous studies. The authors concluded that these data do not support a rationale for drinking red wine for health benefits due to the known long-term health harms of alcohol consumption.
