New research suggests that for certain adults, drinking wine may help prevent type 2 diabetes.

A glass of wine with supper can reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes by 14%.

There's a lot of misinformation out there about wine's possible heart-health benefits. According to the American Heart Association's (AHA) recently modified dietary guidelines, alcohol use should be limited for heart health, and its recently published research states that no amount of alcohol is good for your heart. On the other hand, the Mediterranean diet, which is famed for its heart-health benefits, recommends a glass of red wine every now and then. According to a new study published by the American Heart Association, drinking wine with meals is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Is alcohol, after all, beneficial to your health?

The study, which was presented at the American Heart Association's Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle, and Cardiometabolic Health Conference 2022, looked at health data from over 312,400 adults who consume alcohol to see if moderate drinking is linked to type 2 diabetes onset. Participants in the UK Biobank self-reported their alcohol usage between 2006 and 2010, and researchers followed up for approximately 11 years. According to the press release, moderate consumption is defined as one glass of wine or other alcoholic beverage per day for women and up to two glasses per day for males.

Participants did not have diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cancer at the start of the trial. One major drawback of the study was that the average age of the participants was 56 years old, that slightly more than half of the participants were female, and that 95 percent of the participants were Caucasian adults. It's unclear whether these findings can be applied to other situations at this time.

Approximately 8,600 participants in the research developed type 2 diabetes throughout the follow-up period. In comparison to individuals who drank alcohol without food, those who drank alcohol with meals had a 14 percent decreased risk of type 2 diabetes, according to the study.

Is it true that alcohol is good for your health?

The research doesn't always imply that you should mix yourself a cocktail every night. The main point is that, in some instances, opting for wine over beer or spirits may be the better option. Only those who drank wine while eating meals benefited from it, and those who chose wine over other types of alcohol benefited the most. In fact, increased beer or liquor intake was linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

Additionally, more research is needed to evaluate how wine consumption with a meal affects the risk of type 2 diabetes. The time of day and nutritional content of the meal with wine were not mentioned in this study, according to Robert H. Eckel, M.D., FAHA, a previous president of the AHA who was not involved in the study.

"The effects of alcohol consumption on health have been described as a double-edged sword because of its apparent abilities to cut deeply in either direction—harmful or helpful, depending on how it is consumed," said Hao Ma, M.D., Ph.D., study author and biostatistical analyst at Tulane University's Obesity Research Center in New Orleans, in a press release. "Previous research have yielded varied outcomes when it comes to how much people drink. Only a few research have looked into other aspects of drinking, such as the time of alcohol use."

Dr. Ma said that moderate drinking has previously been linked to health advantages such as glucose metabolism, but not particularly the lowering of type 2 diabetes. "We wanted to see if the relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes differed depending on when the alcohol was consumed in relation to meals," he said in a press statement.

According to the press release, however, alcohol consumption has long been related to long-term health hazards such as high blood pressure, obesity, stroke, breast cancer, liver disease, depression, and more.

These findings suggest that other elements in wine, such as antioxidants, may be the role in lowering new-onset type 2 diabetes. "While the type of wine, red versus white, and validation of these findings and mechanisms of benefit are needed, the results imply that if you are taking alcohol with meals, wine may be a better choice," according to Dr. Eckel in a press statement.

Furthermore, wine drinking should not be used as the sole method of preventing type 2 diabetes. Nutrition, physical exercise, sleep, tobacco use, and body weight are all important variables in preventing type 2 diabetes, according to Dr. Eckel.

The final decision

Adults who do not currently drink alcohol should not start drinking, and those who do drink should do so in moderation, according to the AHA. Finally, consult with your physician to see if substituting wine for another alcoholic beverage is something you should consider (if you already choose to drink).

“The lesson from this study is that consuming reasonable amounts of wine with meals may avoid type 2 diabetes provided you do not have any health condition that may be negatively affected by moderate alcohol intake and in collaboration with your doctor,” Dr. Ma said in the press release.

According to Dr. Eckel, the most significant element in preventing type 2 diabetes is maintaining a healthy weight. Adults over the age of 18 should obtain 150 minutes of physical activity per week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.