I know many of you reading this are probably wine fans and are giddy with excitement when new studies come out with the benefits of drinking red wine. While I won't deny there are some benefits of drinking wine, it really is over blown and most would still be better off cutting down on drinking any form of alcohol.
Last year one study was all over the internet and news reports that found that drinking red wine resulted in the same benefits of an hour of exercise. This is what everyone has been waiting for. Fitness in a pill....well, maybe a bottle. But could this really be true?
The short answer is no. It most likely isn't true. First off, I'm not a big fan of watching the news. For the most part they just aren't accurate with their information. They are a business trying to get viewers. Scaring people and giving false hope are two great ways to get people to watch. Websites are similar. Actually a recent study looking at the most and least reliable weight loss information on the internet found that the least reliable source was from news sites (1). So be very skeptical when you hear things like this on the news or read them online, unless you know it is a credible source.
Now back to this claim. The main people is that reports and writers often do not know how to read studies or apply them. They should leave that to those in the field. Not that I am a research expert but I have read enough journals to know what is truly being said.
Problem number one is that they didn't test this on humans. They used mice. While animal study is a great place to start, you can't just make the conclusion that if it works for mice it will work the same in humans. There are thousands of research studies showing that is not true. The second problem is that they didn't have mice drink wine. They fed them a diet high in resveratrol, which is found in red wine. They did not give the mice alcohol so we don't know if there would be an effect there as well.
And finally, the headlines you read on these articles say that drinking red wine has the same benefits as an hour of exercise. This wasn't shown in the study at all. Here is what they did. They had 4 groups of mice. One group was sedentary and did no exercise and no special diet. The second group did not exercise but was fed a diet with resveratrol. The third group exercise but no diet change and the final group exercise and was given resveratrol. You may be asking, "Exercise for mice?" Yes they had them run on treadmills until they fatigued. To make sure they ran they gave them an electrical shock or blew them with an air spray. Maybe that could be a new training technique at SDPT....
And what were the results? Well the two groups that exercised saw the best results in terms of endurance and strength. No big surprise there. Between the two groups that did not exercise, the group that was given resveratrol did see some improvements over the sedentary group that did not change their diet. But it was no where even close to either of the exercise groups. You can see the actual graphs below from the study. It may not make sense but the bars on the right are for the two exercise groups. See how much better they did?
So sorry to be a buzz kill. I know you don't want to hear this from me but it is my job to make sense of all the bad info out there. So bottom line, nothing will replace hard work and sweat. So put down the wine glass and get your butt to the gym.
You Stay Healthy San Diego,
Mike Deibler
San Diego Premier Training
Resources:
1. American Journal of Public Health (2014; 104 [10], 1971–78)
