Can Wine Help You Loose Weight?

The Science of Wine & Weight Loss

It’s no secret that some people enjoy a nice glass of wine in the evening. We’ve all heard that drinking wine on a regular basis (albeit in moderation) provides you with many health benefits, but several new studies suggest it may be a way to prevent obesity and even help you slim down.

The average glass of red wine contains around 125 calories, and a bottle would usually hold five glasses - or around 600 calories. A 13-year Harvard University study that followed some 20,000 women found that the ones who drank half a bottle of wine on a daily basis were 70% less likely to develop obesity. These two pieces of information seem to clash, as adding another 300 calories to your diet on a regular basis should cause you to gain weight, not lose it, but the results seem to speak for themselves. The University College Medical School of London held an eight-year study with 43,500 female participants and found that those who drank a couple of glasses on a daily basis were 24% less likely to put on weight compared to those who abstained from alcohol.

Furthermore, a 10-year study held by the CDC found that of the 7,230 people it studied, the drinkers gained less weight than non-drinkers, and concluded that alcohol intake does not increase the risk of obesity.

A final reason to drink wine comes from the European Conference on Obesity, which was held in Prague, Czech Republic in May of 2015. It found that drinking a glass of red wine every night helps increase your levels of 'good' cholesterol – HDL. It was also shown to improve type-2 diabetes thanks to its ability to boost the metabolism of glucose – turning simple sugars into energy.

Wine’s weight-loss properties are attributed to the high levels of resveratrol – a compound that breaks down fats, reducing the total amount of fat in one’s body. Additionally, your body needs to digest the wine you drink, and that requires special enzymes to break it down. These enzymes exist in considerably lower levels in women than they do in men. This means that the female body need to work harder to digest wine, and women may burn more calories digesting it, than they gain from drinking it.  With dozens more studies corroborating these findings, it seems that wine may not be the end-all solution for weight gain, but it can definitely help. So fill up your glass, lean back, and enjoy a nice glass of wine – it’s good for you.