Is Wine a “Functional Food”?

In taking a closer look at wine and health, one might ask if wine should be considered a “functional food.” If you’re not familiar with the term, a functional food is any natural or preserved food that in some way promotes wellness and/or helps prevent disease. Functional foods typically deliver health benefits in addition to nutritive value through active ingredients such as phytochemicals─plant compounds─that offer disease-protective and/or therapeutic benefits.

Many scientific studies have indicated that moderate wine consumption helps protect against cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, lung disease, many forms of cancer, neurological diseases, and cognitive decline, among others. That’s quite a list, but the medical research is solid and comprehensive (see referenced articles on wine and these individual diseases at http://winewellnessandlongevity.blogspot.com)

By now you may know that the health benefits of wine are largely due to the phytochemicals it contains, specifically polyphenols. Polyphenols include four categories of compounds: phenolic acids, flavonoids, lignans, and stilbenes. Wine─particularly red wine─is a rich source of a variety of phenolics, flavonoids, and resveratrol, a class of stilbenes. In fact, did you know that a mere 4 oz. glass of wine may contain up to 200 different types of polyphenols?

These compounds work synergistically to enhance wellness and minimize your risk of a wide range of disease states, especially within the context of a healthy, produce-rich diet. Wine is a whole food, and despite many current claims, no pill purporting to contain a few of these compounds can ever deliver the collective benefits wine offers. Clearly, wine in moderation meets─and exceeds─the definition of a functional food.

Champagne: A Toast to Health

By now you know red wine is famous for many health benefits, but what about the world’s favorite celebratory elixir? Champagne─which is generally a white sparkling wine either produced in the Champagne region of France or resembling that which is produced there─has been consumed for thousands of years. Champagne is made the same way as wine, but a second fermentation process is added. This occurs when the wine stays in the bottle. A fermentation of carbon dioxide bubbles occur, giving champagne its sparkling characteristic.

It turns out that champagne has some health benefits well worth celebrating. Research suggests that this world-renowned libation may help protect the brain against neurological injuries that are obtained during a stroke, as well as the degenerative effects of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Champagne offers a protective effect against nerve injury caused by oxidation. This protection appears to be due in part to phenolics including tyrosol, caffeic acid, and gallic acid.1

Although white wine lacks the resveratrol content of red wine, it still packs a wellness punch due to the other polyphenols it contains, like tyrosol, mentioned above, and hydroxytyrosol. These compounds offer cardiovascular protection given their abilities to improve ventricular performance, reduce cardiomyocyte apoptosis (programmed death of heart cells), and protect against free radical damage.2

Along with both cardiovascular and neuro-protective benefits, wine phenolics may also have anticarcinogenic (cancer prevention) effects. Although white wines have a lower phenolic content than red wines, the phenols they do contain appear to have a higher antioxidant capacity than red wine phenols.3 A votre santé!

1 Drugs Exp Clin Res. 1999;25(2-3):121-4.
2 J Agric Food Chem. 2008 Oct 22;56(20):9362-73. Epub 2008 Sep 27 9
3Arch Biochem Biophys. 2010 Mar 31. [Epub ahead of print]