Drinking wine in moderation with meals linked to lower type 2 diabetes risk: Study

Drinking wine, with meals is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, suggests a new study. Let us read more about it.

A study by Tulane University, Louisiana, on how wine consumption is associated with risk of type-2 diabetes indicated that consuming moderate amounts of alcohol (no more than 14 grams per day for women and 28 grams per day for men), especially wine, with meals was associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. "The effects of alcohol consumption on health have been described as a double-edged sword because of its apparent abilities to cut deeply in either direction -- harmful or helpful, depending on how it is consumed," said study author Hao Ma from the Tulane University.

Alcohol consumption is linked to short- and long-term health risks, including motor vehicle crashes, violence, sexual risk behaviours, high blood pressure, obesity, stroke, breast cancer, liver disease, depression, suicide, accidents, alcohol abuse, and alcoholism. These health risks increase as the amount of alcohol an individual drinks increases. For some cancers and other health conditions, the risk increases even at very low levels of alcohol consumption -- less than one drink daily.

Moderate drinking is defined as one glass of wine or other alcoholic beverage daily for women and up to two glasses daily for men. That works out to be up to 14 grams, or about 150 ml, of wine a day for women and up to 28 grams, or about 300 ml, of wine daily for men, according to Ma.

The American Heart Association and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that adults who do not drink alcohol should not start. Among those who drink alcohol regularly, they should talk with their doctors about the benefits and risks of consuming alcohol in moderation. Some people should not drink at all, including women who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, people under the age of 21 and people with certain health conditions.

For the study, the researchers involved 312,400 and examined the effect moderate drinking may have related to new-onset type 2 diabetes among all study participants over about 11 years (between 2006 and 2010).

The analysis found:

• During an average of nearly 11 years of follow-up, about 8,600 of the adults in the study developed type 2 diabetes.
• Consuming alcohol with meals was associated with a 14% lower risk of type 2 diabetes compared to consuming alcohol without eating food.
• The potential benefit of moderate drinking on type 2 diabetes risk was evident only among the people who drank alcohol during meals, although the specific time of meals was not collected in this study.
• The beneficial association between alcohol drinking with meals and type 2 diabetes was most common among the participants who drank wine vs. other types of alcohol.
• Consuming wine, beer and liquor had different associations with type 2 diabetes risk. While a higher amount of wine intake was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, a higher amount of beer or liquor was associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

“The message from this study is that drinking moderate amounts of wine with meals may prevent type 2 diabetes if you do not have another health condition that may be negatively affected by moderate alcohol consumption and in consultation with your doctor,” Ma said.

Disclaimer: This article is based on a study. We do not encourage consumption of wine or any other alcoholic beverage.