The Veritas About Vino

The university class Sioris teaches on the medicinal effects of wine is subtitled “Hey Doc, Should I Start Drinking?” He answers that question with several caveats: Not if you have a medical condition made worse by alcohol or are taking medications that don’t mix with it. Not if you have a personal or family history of alcoholism. Not on an empty stomach (benefits are greatest with food). Not if you’re driving or operating heavy machinery. Maybe not if you get migraines. Definitely not if you are pregnant.

Women are so familiar with the warnings on wine bottles that many now worry about what they drank before they were aware they were expecting. “Wine has become a source of anxiety for many women,” acknowledges Charles Haislet, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Diamond Women’s Center in south Minneapolis, who assures his patients that “the glass of chardonnay you had [early in your pregnancy] is generally not going to be an issue.” Haislet began studying wine and health more than thirty years ago when the first reports of fetal alcohol syndrome struck fear in his patients. His interest was further kindled when his son Sam married Nan Bailly and opened a wine shop near downtown Minneapolis.

In spite of his expertise (he served as cellar master and chevalier du tastevin for the International Wine and Food Society), Haislet confines his recommendations to public health issues. Lately, he says, his patients have been concerned about another paradox. On the one hand, the studies suggest that moderate wine consumption can cut the risk of coronary heart disease by 30 to 50 percent. On the other, a study released last spring found that one or two drinks a day of wine, beer, or other alcohol could raise the risk of the most common type of breast tumors—those fueled by the hormones estrogen and progesterone.

“It’s a difficult question for women,” Haislet says. While heart disease takes nearly ten times as many lives as breast cancer, “if you have a family history of breast cancer, why push your luck?” Haislet advises women to weigh their health risks against the pleasure they take from wine, consulting their own physicians or pharmacists about options. White wines may be less threatening (their skin and seeds where resveratrol is concentrated have been strained out) to women worried about breast cancer. Those women may be heartened to know that Concord grape juice has been shown to have many of the same blood-clot-reducing properties of red wine.

What else do the doctors know?

If you’re interested mainly in the health properties of wine, Sioris suggests choosing younger wines because the antioxidants in red wine dissipate over time. Haislet recommends wines that come from thicker-skinned grapes such as malbec, merlot, and cabernet. Both caution that wine has about 100 calories per five-ounce serving, so if your New Year’s resolution is to drink more frequently to your health, you’ll have to cut calories from other sources to make room—otherwise you could face the next year several pounds heavier.

Whatever wine you choose, the docs recommend that you sit down and truly savor it. “You can quantify the dilation of the vessels of the heart so much better than you can quantify what wine does to relieve stress at the end of the day,” says Haislet, noting that the pleasure that pours forth from a bottle of wine may be its least appreciated health property.

Contact columnist Laura Billings at edit@mspmag.com.