Alcohol plays a prevalent role in many cultures, with many of us toasting to big life moments, enjoying happy hours with coworkers or friends, or simply indulging in a few drinks after a long, stressful day.

Of course, health experts have long cautioned against binge drinking, which roughly equates to consuming five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women in about two hours. If you’ve ever overindulged in your favorite drinks, you know that it typically doesn’t feel great the next day, and repeated alcohol abuse can impact your mental and physical health.

But research has also shown that drinking alcohol in moderation can actually be beneficial for your health in some surprising ways. 

Here are some of the most interesting ways drinking in moderation can benefit you, so long as you consume it safely and responsibly.

Moderate alcohol consumption can lead to a longer life.

It’s true that drinking to excess can lead to illness and disease, including several types of cancer, brain damage, and liver damage, and it can even shorten your life span. But drinking moderately might actually help you live longer, according to a 2014 study conducted by three universities in Spain.

Researchers followed a small group of Spanish participants over the course of 12 years and found that those who who drank “low amounts of wine spread out over the week” but avoided binge drinking showed a 25% reduced risk of mortality.

Another study from 2017 followed approximately 333,000 adults who drink alcohol and found that those who kept their drinking habits in moderation saw a 21% lower risk of mortality than participants who never drank.

Similarly, a 2018 study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, has found that people who drink in moderation may be less likely to die early than those who stay away from booze altogether.

It might also reduce your risk of heart failure.

Too much alcohol can cause serious problems for your heart health, but several studies have shown that enjoying a few drinks a week may reduce heart failure risk.

A 2006 study found that light to moderate alcohol consumption “is associated with a lower risk of ischemic stroke,” as well as a reduction in vascular risk in middle-aged people in particular.

A 1999 study found that “moderate drinkers are at lower risk for the most common form of heart disease, coronary artery disease than are either heavier drinkers or abstainers,” due to the “protective effects” of alcohol on the heart linked to blood chemistry and “the prevention of clot formation in arteries that deliver blood to the heart muscle,” leading to a lower risk of coronary disease.

Another study completed between 1980 and 1988 found that the risk of coronary disease and stroke in women was particularly low in those that reported moderate alcohol use among a sample of 87,526 female nurses between the ages of 34 and 59.

Though these findings are promising for those who already have a healthy relationship with alcohol, it’s also important to note that adopting overall healthy lifestyle habits is the surest way to protect your heart.

You might have a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes.

A 2005 analysis published in the journal Diabetes Care noted a “highly significant” reduced risk of type 2 diabetes among moderate alcohol drinkers than heavy drinkers and abstainers, compiling data from 15 different studies, linking healthy lifestyle habits with those who report moderate alcohol use.

“As it stands, we are expecting to see a 37% influx in type 2 diabetes cases around the world by 2030, and though studies have shown no abatement in the risk of type 2 diabetes in those who already drink heavily in their day-to-day lives, there is a notable 30% reduced risk in those that drink in moderation,” cardiologist Robert Segal, founder of Manhattan Cardiology, told Insider.

Moderate drinking might help with male fertility.

A 2018 study conducted by an Italian fertility clinic and published in the journal Andrology showed that male fertility was highest among participants who consumed four to seven drinks per week compared to those that drank between one and three alcoholic beverages or more than eight.

The sample size was 323 men, so it was a relatively small pool, but it seems to be another reason to stick to a drink per day or so if you’re hoping for optimal fertility.

Drinking in moderation can help prevent the common cold.

Though too much alcohol can worsen cold symptoms by dehydrating you and potentially interacting with cold medicines, it seems that moderate drinking can help prevent you from catching a cold in the first place.

In a 1993 study by the department of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, researchers found that moderate alcohol consumption led to a decrease in common cold cases among people who don’t smoke. In 2002, according to the New York Times, Spanish researchers found that by drinking eight to 14 glasses of wine per week (particularly red wine), those who imbibed saw a 60% reduction in the risk of developing a cold, with the scientists crediting the antioxidants found in wine.

“Wine is rich in antioxidants, and these chemicals help prepare your body to combat any free radicals in your system by allowing your body to absorb resveratrol, a key compound that helps keep your immune system in top form,” Segal told Insider. “Regardless of healthy or unhealthy drinking habits, smokers should expect to confront the common cold more easily and with more frequency than those who abstain from nicotine consumption.”

You might decrease your chances of dementia.

In a series of studies published by the journal Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment in 2011 that began in 1977 and included more than 365,000 participants, researchers found that moderate drinkers (those who drank one or two drinks per day) were 23% less likely to develop cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, Science Daily reported.

“Small amounts of alcohol might, in effect, make brain cells more fit. Alcohol in moderate amounts stresses cells and thus toughens them up to cope with major stresses down the road that could cause dementia,” said Edward J. Neafsey, co-author of the study, told Science Daily. “We don’t recommend that nondrinkers start drinking, but moderate drinking — if it is truly moderate — can be beneficial.”

There might also be a reduced risk of gallstones.

Capping your drinks to two per day might reduce your risk of gallstones by one-third, according to researchers at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. The 2009 study found that participants who reported consuming two drinks per day had a one-third reduction in their risk of developing gallstones. 

“Researchers emphasized that their findings show the benefits of moderate alcohol intake but stress that excessive alcohol intake can cause health problems,” according to a press release.

The finding was further supported by a 2017 study conducted by researchers at the School of Public Health at Qingdao University in Qingdao, China, who found “alcohol consumption is associated with significantly decreased risk of gallstone disease.”

As for how this happens, Segal told Insider that “consuming moderate amounts of alcohol does help in the production of bile, which keeps gallstones from fully forming.”

Postmenopausal women might experience bone health benefits from moderate alcohol use.

People lose bone mass or density naturally as they age, which can lead to osteoporosis, a disorder in which the bones become fragile or weakened. This is particularly common in postmenopausal women, who are more susceptible to bone disorders due to their naturally smaller bones and hormone changes after menopause.

But a 2012 study published in the Journal of The North American Menopause Society showed that moderate alcohol intake can actually slow down bone loss in women after menopause, potentially leading to a lower risk of developing bone disorders like osteoporosis.

You might also be less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis.

A 2010 study published in the journal Rheumatology showed that people who don’t drink are almost four times more likely to have rheumatoid arthritis than those who have at least one drink three times per week.

Researchers said that’s likely due to alcohol’s anti-inflammatory properties, which can help prevent joints from aching and swelling if drinking is in moderation.

Researchers also found that people with arthritis who drink alcohol in moderation have less severe symptoms, though they noted that heavy drinking can be damaging to those who already suffer from arthritis, as it can exacerbate symptoms and interact with medications.

By drinking moderately, you can reap the nutritional benefits offered by wine and beer.

Believe it or not, beer actually has a few nutritional benefits that you can take advantage of if you drink in moderation. By enjoying beer moderately, you’ll enjoy the vitamins, minerals, and proteins it contains.

Meanwhile, wine has iron in it, as well as the aforementioned antioxidant properties.

Of course, a pint of beer shouldn’t take the place of your daily multivitamin, but the occasional drink can be part of an overall balanced diet and lifestyle without impacting your health in a negative way.

You might feel improvements in your mental health, too.

While there are many physical benefits to drinking in moderation, there are also psychological benefits of moderate alcohol consumption.

One study found that those who consume low to moderate amounts of alcohol reported an increase in happiness and “pleasant and carefree feelings.” Researchers also found a decrease in “tension, depression and self-consciousness,” saying that “heavy drinkers and abstainers have higher rates of clinical depression than do regular moderate drinkers.”

Though your mental and physical health with respect to alcohol is best discussed with your doctor, the connection between heavy alcohol use and depression is well known, and should not be taken lightly.

If you’re able to maintain a healthy relationship with alcohol and not rely on it as a way to cope with stress, anxiety, or depression, you might find a healthy balance between moderate drinking and your mental health. Check in with your doctor to ensure that alcohol is playing a safe and responsible role in your lifestyle.

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Of course I would like to believe the scientists who claim that eating dark chocolate positively affects our wellbeing and that drinking moderate amounts of red wine improve our health. I like both dark chocolate and red wine and sometimes together to get a double wellness whammy. What’s not to like?

Question is are the scientists actually right? We have written numerous posts about claimed superfoods doing wonders to our health when it is actually the overall diet that is most important, not the individual components as such. Sure we have also fallen into the trap of praising some individual foods as the popular press did this time for fashionable dark chocolate and red wine. Even scientists want to get some attention.

Dark chocolate and health

Let’s start with reviewing the dark chocolate findings. Scientists from the University College London, the University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services Canada assessed data from 13,626 adults from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Daily chocolate consumption and type of chocolate was assessed against scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire, which assesses depressive symptoms.

As usual, a range of other factors including height, weight, marital status, ethnicity, education, household income, physical activity, smoking and chronic health problems were taken into account to ensure the study only measured chocolate’s effect on depressive symptoms. Overall, 11.1% of the population reported any chocolate consumption, with 1.4% reporting dark chocolate consumption.

The scientists found that eating dark chocolate positively affected mood and relieved depressive symptoms. As a matter of fact, individuals eating any amount of dark chocolate had 70% lower odds of reporting clinically relevant depressive symptoms than those who reported not eating chocolate at all.

So far so good!

To be believable it is important to find a biological mechanism that can explain the results. And there are several. Chocolate contains a number of psychoactive ingredients which produce a feeling of euphoria and phenylethylamine which is believed to be important for regulating people’s moods. Also, dark chocolate in particular has a higher concentration of flavonoids, antioxidant polyphenols that have been shown to improve inflammation and play a role in the onset of depression.

Another strength of the study is that daily chocolate consumption was derived from two 24‐hour dietary recalls and not from much more dubious food frequency questionnaires that are so common.

And the bad!

Although the study included a large overall sample, there were less than 200 individuals that reported dark chocolate consumption. There could also be other confounding factors not taken into account.

There is some caution expressed by the scientists themselves claiming that further research is required to clarify causation. It could be the case that depression causes people to lose their interest in eating chocolate, or there could be other factors that make people both less likely to eat dark chocolate and to be depressed.

What about red wine and health?

Scientists at King’s College, London have reported that red wine consumption could be linked to better gut health. The study included a group of 916 female twins and tested the effects of consuming beer, cider, red wine, white wine and spirits on the gut microbiome, the micro-organisms found in the digestive tract.

And compared to other alcoholic drinks they found that the gut microbiome of red wine drinkers was more diverse – a sign of better gut health. The researchers speculated that the positive effect of red wine could be due to its higher amount of chemicals called polyphenols that act as antioxidants.

So what to say!

Well, this could be a big thing.

We know that our gut microbiota can affect multiple aspects of our general health and play a role in many illnesses. As a matter of fact, gut microbes are responsible for producing thousands of chemical metabolites affecting our overall metabolism, our immune system and our brain.

We have long known of the unexplained benefits of red wine on heart health. The study findings that moderate red wine consumption is associated with greater diversity and a healthier gut microbiome could at least partly explain its beneficial effects on heart health.

And there is more

As a check on possible genetic or family biases, the scientists found that the twin who drank red wine more often than the related twin had a more diverse gut flora. White wine drinkers who should be socially and culturally similar, had no significant differences in diversity.

Also, in further support of the findings they were shown to be consistent with results from two other studies of similar size in the US (the American Gut project) and Belgium (Flemish Gut Project) basing the conclusions on a total of about 3000 twins.

And in a previous experimental Spanish study from 2012, admittedly involving only ten healthy middle-aged males, the volunteers were given one of three different beverages to drink each day in each of three 20-day periods: normal strength red wine, low alcoholic red wine and gin. Drinking any type of red wine resulted in a larger percent of certain beneficial gut bacteria, but consuming gin had no effect on the gut flora.

So all good?

Not so fast.

Note that again the main study was observational and not experimental and the previous experimental study was very small. The study subjects in the observational study self-reported their food and drink intake with the usual associated bias. The scientists then prospectively tried to statistically link the reported alcoholic drink consumption with test results from the gut microbial analysis. Using twins strengthens the findings but doesn’t conclusively show causality.

There are the usual professional warning that the positives should still be weighed up against the negative impacts of alcohol. Any potential benefits of red wine polyphenols should be considered alongside alcohol’s links to over 200 health conditions, including heart disease and cancers.

But the beneficial effects were achieved by a very moderate glass of red wine a week or even a fortnight.

The moral of the story

If you’re going to eat chocolate pick the dark variety and you will not only have an enjoyable time but you might also be happier.

And the same goes for alcohol consumption. Drink in moderation and pick red wine and the resulting happiness might also be associated with improved health.

Also remember that the beneficial polyphenols found in dark chocolate and red wine can also be found in a range of other foods.

If you do enjoy drinking wine, red wine is the better choice, but limiting your alcohol consumption (or avoiding it altogether) is always the safest choice. Checkout the collection of red wines and spirits at liquor store Avon, CO. 

In fact, moderate drinking – up to 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men, in most cases – can fit into a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Q: Can Alcohol Be Part of a Healthy Diet?

A: With a full calendar of holiday parties and events this time of year, chances are you may be wondering how alcohol – wine, beer and even those hand-crafted cocktails you see at restaurants – fits into your diet.  In fact, moderate drinking – up to 1 drink per day for women and 2 drinks per day for men, in most cases* – can fit into a healthy diet and lifestyle.  In some cases, moderate drinking has even been shown to have health benefits, lowering the risk of certain diseases.

Here are a few ways alcohol can affect your body:

• Heart: While heavy drinking is associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, stroke and arrhythmia, moderate drinking has actually been shown to have a positive effect on the heart by lowering the risk of heart disease. 
• Brain and Central Nervous System: Alcohol slows down the central nervous system, and in turn, decreases reaction time and coordination.  It’s for this reason a designated driver is always a must to get everyone home from the restaurant or party safely.
• Metabolism: There are many theories about how alcohol affects metabolism as well as how it may increase the risk of obesity.  To date, evidence on the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and obesity remains inconclusive.  With that said, alcoholic drinks can be high in calories which, in excess, can impact your health goals.

Whether you’re enjoying a local craft beer at happy hour with co-workers or a classic cocktail at your favorite restaurant, be prepared with a designated driver and the information you need to stay on track with your health goals this holiday season.  Find nutrition information (calories, fat, etc.) for some common drink choices here. 

How do you balance healthy choices at restaurants with moderate indulgences like alcohol?  What tips do you follow to stay on track with a healthy diet during the holiday celebrations?

*Work with your doctor and dietitian for personalized recommendations.

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For the cover of my book Wine & Health: Making sense of the new science and what it means for wine lovers, my publisher chose a painting portraying the story of the Triumph of Bacchus. It’s a subtle nod to my analysis of wine’s renewed role in healthy living, but it also underscores the temptation to oversimplify the controversial topic. Sure, Dionysus (later Bacchus in the Roman pantheon) was the god of wine and revelry, but he also inspired generosity, joy, and temperance. The story goes that he gave a grape vine as a gift of gratitude to King Oenos, giving rise to the terms oenology and wine, endowing them from the beginning with positive attributes of human nature.

There are dozens of depictions of the Triumph of Bacchus, from Titian to Raphael, but perhaps the best know is Velasquez’s masterpiece in the Prado. Known also as Los Borrachos (the drunkards), I think it misses the mark thematically. The story derives from classical Greek mythology, depicting the marriage of Dionysus (Bacchus) and Ariadne, the clever and beautiful daughter of King Minos of Crete. 

She found herself in a bit of a situation after aiding the hero Theseus in his mission to slay the Minotaur, the half human, half bull monster of the great labyrinth. Minos, in retaliation for his son’s death at the hands of an Athenian, had demanded the people of Athens to send young men and women to be sacrificed to the Minotaur or suffer destruction; Theseus, a strapping lad, volunteered so that he might have a chance to slay the beast. Ariadne fell for him at first sight, and offered to help if he agreed to marry her, whereupon she gave him a sword and told him how to find his way through the maze with ball of thread to mark a path.

Alas, Theseus was apparently a cad, and he abandoned Ariadne on an island during the journey home. Bacchus found her there (the original pilot for “Bachelor in Paradise”?), and was star struck. He took her for his own wife, and the rowdy scene of The Triumph is a celebratory wedding procession.

The Getty Museum has a monumental 16^th century tapestry of the Triumph of Bacchus, originally commissioned by Pope Leo X. In this version the moral side of the story is represented, with characterizations of the cardinal virtues—Justice, Charity, Prudence, Faith, Hope, Fortitude, and Temperance. Our cover Bacchus is typical of this interpretation, with the demigod appearing more dignified than debauched.

And so it is with wine. In moderation but regularity, I contend that it remains a central component of healthy living. In Wine & Health I unravel the controversies about healthy drinking, and follow the lines of recent research through the labyrinths of science. I find answers emerging from new paradoxes: Studies declaring the demise of the French Paradox may be globally accurate while missing wine’s position in health and well-being; wine drinkers outlive nondrinkers on average, even as we are warned about alcohol’s threats to health; and evidence of wine’s benefits can be found in the very studies telling us about alcohol’s hazards.

Bacchus discovered the juice of the grape and introduced it to mankind, stilling thereby each grief that mortals suffer from . . . and sleep that brings forgetfulness of daily ills, . . . ’twas he that gave the vine to man, sorrow’s antidote.

If you are in Colorado, drop by liquor store Vail, CO. We can recommend the best red wine to drink for your health.