Wine is an alcoholic beverage that can be healthy when drunk in moderation—variations of red such as pinot noir are among the healthiest wines. The benefits of wine come from its antioxidant content.
Other types of wine, like white, orange, and rosé, also contain antioxidants. Read on to learn how wine is healthy for you and why moderation is key.
1. Healthiest: Red wines
Ruby red wines are the healthiest types of wine. They contain more antioxidants than all the other varieties.
For example, red wine has eight times more antioxidants than white wine. That's because the grape skins aren't removed during fermentation.1 The antioxidants have been linked to health benefits, including heart disease protection and possibly longevity.
They can decrease the levels of "bad" cholesterol and boost the levels of "good" cholesterol in your blood, which can reduce the risk of heart disease. Daily consumption of red wine is linked to a 12% increase in "good" cholesterol.
Drinking red wine in moderation may also increase your lifespan because of the chemical resveratrol found in the skin of red grapes. Pinot noir, in particular, can have up to 16 mg/L of resveratrol.
Resveratrol acts like an antioxidant and may prevent age-related heart function decline. The resveratrol content of red wine has additional health benefits, too—it may decrease the risk of colon and prostate cancer.
2. Second healthiest: Orange wines
After red, your best bet is orange wine, described as "white wine made like a red." In white wine making, the skins are typically removed just after the grapes are pressed.
In orange wines—made with green grapes—the skins and seeds remain in contact with the juice, resulting in an orange hue. This is why orange wine is sometimes called "skin-contact wine."4
While the skins and seeds ferment in the grape juice, their good-for-you antioxidants, polyphenols, seep into the juice, providing an antioxidant content similar to that of red wine.
Since orange wine has similar antioxidant content to red wine, it may offer similar health benefits. Orange wine may be beneficial for heart health and protect against heart disease.
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