 "Photo: Andrew Huse/ Staff Photographer")
After having a glass of merlot with her favorite pasta dish at a local Italian restaurant, communications senior Rachel Weiss likes to pair her usual dessert choice - a chocolate soufflé - with a sweet Port wine.
Weiss has been regularly enjoying a glass of wine with her meals since she turned 21 this past year. While she's always been told that wine can be good for your health, Weiss didn't know just how sweet the benefits of that port are.
In May, researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine released results from a study that suggested consuming one glass of wine a day might actually decrease the prevalence of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
"The results of this study present a paradigm shift, suggesting that modest wine consumption may not only be safe for the liver but may actually decrease the prevalence of NAFLD," Jeffrey Schwimmer, M.D., associate professor of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition in the Department of Pediatrics at UCSD School of Medicine said.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information defines NAFLD as a liver disease in which the liver is laden with macrovesicular fat and variable degrees of inflammation, cell injury and fibrosis. In the August issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, NAFLD was published as a major risk factor in chronic kidney disease and could be a risk factor for larger health problems such as obesity and type 2 diabetes.
"The odds of having suspected NAFLD based upon abnormal liver blood tests was reduced by 50 percent in individuals who drank one glass of wine a day," Schwimmer said.
It included a comparison between 7,211 individuals who had no alcohol consumption and 4,543 who reported drinking up to one glass of wine per day. Wine drinkers, as compared to those who reported modest consumption of beer or liquor, suspected NAFLD four times less than alternative choices of alcohol.
The results remained consistent even after the study was adjusted for numerous factors including age, sex, race, diet, physical activity and body mass index among others. "I hadn't even heard of that disease much less knew that wine could actually help fight off something," Weiss said. "It's great to know my drink of choice has actual health benefits."
While Weiss can enjoy a glass of wine with her meal at her favorite Italian restaurant and likely receive the benefits the study concluded, Schwimmer and the research team reported that those who benefited in the study were, by definition, consuming modest amounts of alcohol.
Modest alcohol consumption was defined as either four ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer or one ounce of liquor - an average of up to one drink per day.
The study did not include research on those who drink in large amounts. The American Heart Association cautions that drinking more alcohol than an average of one to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women increases such dangers as alcoholism, high blood pressure, stroke, breast cancer, obesity, suicide and accidents.
Because the effects on the liver were only seen with wine, further studies would need to be conducted to determine if the benefits could come from other alcoholic beverages or if they are only caused by a non-alcoholic component in wine.
If you can keep your consumption at one to two glasses a day, like Weiss, you can have your wine - and drink it too.
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