Is white or red wine the healthiest type of wine?

A good dinner party or friends and family time together always is fun with a good bottle of wine. Research about the benefits and risks of moderate drinking is ongoing and studies show potential links between moderate red wine consumption and longevity or between moderate alcohol intake and cognitive functions. Others show that any level of alcohol intake will affect our health negatively.

The healthiest wine is dry white wine, or any wine grown in cooler climates because it has less sugar and alcohol, says Debbie Petitpain, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends no more than two drinks per day for men and no more than one drink per day for women. With wine, this means a standard 5-ounce glass of wine with a 12% ABV, or alcohol by volume. If you choose a higher-alcohol wine (Zinfandel, for example, is typically 14% ABV or higher), you’ll go above the recommended limits even if you have a 5-ounce pour.

Few wines have residual sugars, or natural sugars leftover from fermenting the grapes. Others, like dessert wines, have added sugars. The other key factor is alcohol – another source of concentrated calories in wine. Because wine doesn’t offer many nutrients other than these calories, you’ll want to search for a wine lower in both sugar and alcohol.

Dry white wines typically have an ABV between 9-11%, Petitpain says.

 A recent study published in BMC Medicine found that alcohol consumption may have both positive and negative effects on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The study observed metabolites, byproducts of metabolizing a substance that can serve as signs of diseases. Of the 60 observed, seven metabolites linked long-term moderate alcohol consumption to an increased risk of CVD. Three metabolites linked the same drinking pattern to a lower risk of CVD.

One antioxidant found in red wine is resveratrol, which comes from grape skin and has anti-inflammatory and disease-preventing properties. Some other wines contain it, too. It’s also present in foods like tomato skin, chocolate and peanuts.

This study is just one puzzle piece to help keep the “complexity of alcohol” in context with overall health, Petitpain says. Part of that is figuring out how much of the benefits come from alcohol and how much are from plant nutrients during the grape fermentation process.

Type of wine aside, there are a few other ways to drink wine in the healthiest way possible. If the taste is important but you could take or leave the booze, try a non-alcoholic wine. If you anticipate more than one glass, alternate alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Or, make your glass into a wine spritzer.

“Adding a club soda or even a sparkling flavored water to dilute your wine somewhat, that can actually give you a larger serving size without adding more alcohol or calories to your drink,” Petitpain says.

“There’s probably a sweet spot like there is with most things where a little bit may be health protective for some people but too much actually starts to go in the wrong direction,” Petitpain says. “This lower-alcohol wine would allow you to have some without taking in too much.”