Nashville has a vibrant but quiet medical presence in the United States. That’s because, although we’re known for Music City “sparkle and twang,” we’re also home to insurance and medical groups, and facilities like Vanderbilt University Medical Center. With those links to the medical industry, it’s no wonder many Nashvillians drink wine in part for the health benefits. After all, wine drinkers choose wine because it’s filled with antioxidants and cancer-fighting goodness, right? Well, sort of. There’s plenty of misconception and spin about wine’s health advantages and risks. So let’s cut through the fog of science and salesmanship, and look at how wine actually impacts our health.
Wine has been the topic of all sorts of studies from organizations ranging from Yale to the University of Puerto Rico and from institutes from New York to Amsterdam. I doubt there’s a person alive—including myself—that doesn’t applaud those working diligently to understand how wine’s polyphenols affect cancer cells or how drinking wine may lead to a longer life.
All that said, there’s another not so altruistic reason so many studies are being done on this subject. Class, anyone have the answer? Yes, it’s publicity and money. Wine studies get good press. It’s a hot topic and a sure-fire way for an institute to garner some attention outside of the scientific world. Thus a university president can proudly stand before a group of donating alumni—more than likely wine drinkers—and say “perhaps you saw a write up about our recent wine study in Wine Blahblah Magazine or the coverage it got on the Good Morning, Montana show.”
There’s nothing wrong with conducting studies that increase our knowledge and grease the wheels of scientific research at the same time. Unfortunately, only a very few of these studies are really groundbreaking. The majority of them don’t really discover or conclude much of anything. Some are complete non-news, while others simply pose further questions that the study doesn’t answer.
The studies are rarely comprehensive enough and thus leave us with some promising ideas but no real-world applications. The key words in wine studies are “may,” “might,” “could,” “perhaps” and “if.” Thus far, we have all sorts of interesting hypotheses, but few hard facts about what wine does to, or for, our health.
So then, why do we hear so much about wine and health? Why are there stories in every periodical around? There are two reasons—first, as we said before, it’s a hot topic. It sells magazines because the public is eager to hear what they want to believe—that wine is good for us. (Perhaps because we want to justify our drinking habits.) The second reason is that the wine industry is focused on selling the health benefits of wine to us.
They publicize these stories in every outlet possible. The better the news, the better the sales for every aspect of the wine industry. Likewise, the wine press is especially quick to publicize any and all studies showing any possible health benefit from drinking wine. The headlines always say, “Wine consumption good for ... (insert whatever the health topic may be),” and the story always follows similar lines. In the first two paragraphs, they report a study shows that wine may be linked to some health benefit, as reported by some research institute. Later, the article says that the study doesn’t take into account any of a thousand variables that make its finding potentially questionable. Yet, we eat it up. It’s become so widespread that people are accepting speculation and hearsay as fact.
In the end, what exactly do we know about the health benefits of wine? Not much, really. It may be good for preventing heart disease in some people and it may have benefits in fighting some forms of cancer. That’s really about all we know. There’s obviously a long way to go to determine whether wine really has much of a serious health benefit. Many more studies will need to be done first.
To those doing this research, I say keep up the good work—I truly want you to find something amazing. Meanwhile, don’t send me hate mail.
To the wine industry, I say this: Cool the sales spin machine until there’s something very real worth reporting. Constantly printing non-news frustrates readers … And, don’t send hate mail.
To my readers I suggest this: Read past the headlines and until that definitive study comes out proving a clear health benefit from everyday, real world, average lifestyle wine consumption—just keep consuming wine. And, when that report finally arrives, celebrate with a good bottle of wine. I mean, come on. Like we need a reason to drink wine? Here’s your health reason to drink wine—it’ll make you happy. Having a relaxing, enjoyable evening with friends and family probably has a bigger overall benefit to your health than any antioxidant ever will. Here’s to your health, Nashville, bettered by wine or not.