For years, a glass of red wine with dinner had a pretty good reputation.
Heart healthy.
Antioxidants.
The French drink it.
The Mediterranean diet includes it.
Heck, depending on what you were reading, pouring yourself a glass almost felt like something you were supposed to do for your health.
I believed some of that too.
Today?
I wouldn’t start drinking wine for the health benefits.
And the reason isn’t that I’ve joined another health tribe.
The evidence has changed.
Where Did the Heart-Healthy Idea Come From?
For years, observational studies found something interesting.
Moderate drinkers sometimes appeared to have better cardiovascular outcomes than people who didn’t drink.
That produced what researchers call a J-shaped curve. Heavy drinking looked bad, no drinking sometimes looked worse than moderate drinking, and moderate drinking appeared to sit in a sweet spot.
There were problems with interpreting that.
One was who ended up in the “non-drinker” group.
Some studies included former drinkers, inclu…
