White Wine as Good for you as Red? Study Says Yes

There is good news for white wine lovers!

A new study is reporting that there is more evidence now that white wine might be as good for one's health as red wine. In this study, which was published Monday, researchers in Israel recruited 224 participants who have type 2 diabetes. The participants were instructed to drink either 150 milliliters (roughly 3/4 of a cup) of white or red wine or mineral water every day at dinnertime for two years straight.

The participants were also encouraged to follow a Mediterranean diet but their daily caloric intake was not restricted. The team concluded, based on the participants' lipid and glycemic control profiles, cardiovascular health and life quality, which were all measured before, during and after the study that red and white wine improved some of the participants' glucose control.

White wine, in particular, helped improve participants' triglyceride levels. Red wine, however, had significantly more benefits. People who drank red wine had improved cardiac health, higher "good" (HDL) cholesterol levels and better apolipoprotein a1 levels, which is a measurement of lipid metabolism.

The researchers wrote, the study "suggests that initiating moderate wine intake, especially red wine, among well-controlled diabetics as part of a healthy diet is apparently safe and modestly decreases cardiometabolic risk."

This study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

In a 2014 study, titled In Vino Veritas (In Wine, Truth), researchers also found that white wine could be beneficial for one's health. The team had recruited 146 adults and instructed half of them drank pinot noir while the other half drank a white chardonnay-pinot. After tracking the participants for over a year, the researchers found that wine drinkers in general who exercised twice a week had improved cholesterol levels.

The research team reported these findings at a European Society of Cardiology meeting last year.