Is beer as healthy as wine?                         

            There is general agreement in the medical community that a moderate intake of red wine has some health benefits. “Moderate” means one 5-ounce glass per day for women and two glasses for men. The concentrated nutrients in wine improve the flexibility of blood vessels, reduce the clotting tendency of blood and lower inflammation, all factors in heart attacks and strokes.

            Moderation, of course, is the key word. A larger intake for both sexes is associated with a higher mortality and a significant factor in falls among seniors.

            Beer drinkers make the case that their favorite beverage has similar properties because it also contains ingredients such as polyphenols that give wine its healthy attributes. There is some scientific evidence to back them up although most of it has been done in laboratory animals, not in humans. Like wine, beer is derived from plants so it’s bound to have some healthy nutrients.

            How about calories? That varies, of course, with the type of wine or beer being considered. Five ounces of a standard red wine contain about 100 calories; white varieties have slightly less but the difference is minimal. Beers vary a great deal between brands. A 12-ounce serving of light beer averages about 120 calories but standard beers may have nearly half again as much per serving. Considering that beer and wine are usually taken with a 1000-calorie-plus meal, those differences are insignificant. And a typical restaurant dessert has more than twice as many calories as a glass of beer.

            Wine is undoubtedly considered to be a more glamorous beverage than beer. (Have you ever heard of a wine belly?) That might help to explain why research studies on wine greatly outnumber those that have been done on beer. There are a couple of studies showing that wine drinkers have better cognitive skills and beer drinkers gain more weight over time but it’s probably the nature of the drinking populations that explains these differences. Although there are certainly exceptions, wine drinkers tend to be more affluent, are more likely to exercise regularly, to visit their doctor more often and eat less junk food. Those factors probably influence their overall health more than the antioxidants, polyphenols and other beneficial nutrients that are more abundant in wine than in beer.

            Taken in moderation, wine and beer, both being derived from plants, contain enough healthy nutrients to justify their inclusion in the diet.