Diabetic Diets And Wine

Belief in the medicinal value of wine is as old as wine itself. The deep, beautiful purple-red color of red wine is produced by a substance called anthocyanin, which is found in the skin of the grape. In addition to the color of red wine, we can thank anthocyanins for the deep red-purple-black color of black olives; and the berry-red color of strawberries, cherries, and raspberries.
The Mediterranean wine is considered very essential in meals and health. An important study of over 40,000 people showed that compared to more modern western diets, a traditional Mediterranean Diet which included 1-2 glasses of wine a day reduced the danger of death by heart disease by 30%.

Unfortunately, for people with diabetes a simple glass of wine or beer doesn't appear in most diabetic diets.

People with diabetes are agreed that the elevated levels of blood sugar is dangerous for them so diabetic diets are geared towards managing blood glucose levels. Actual studies have shown that drinking a reasonable amount of wine daily (1-2 glasses) can lower blood glucose. In a different study, women improved the insulin resistance just for adding moderate consumption of wine to her diets. We all know that high peak levels of insulin are dangerous to people with diabetes since they can lift blood fat and cholesterol increasing the risk of heart attacks and heart illness.

One of the greatest benefits of wine is its capacity to decrease the risks of heart disease, heart attacks and other heart-health issues because it increase levels of "good" HDL-cholesterol in the body. In addition, the flavonoids found in red wine help lower levels of "bad" LDL-cholesterol which are responsible for fatty buildup in the arteries. That is the beneficial part that wine have for people with diabetes and if they complement it with health diets, they can consider themselves as winners. As a complement we can say that a new study confirm that drinking 1-2 glasses of wine a day reduced the danger of coronary heart disease by 60% for people with diabetes compared to a drop of only 40% for people without diabetes.


Red wine may also reduce oxidative stress caused by increased blood glucose levels after meals, according to Antonio Ceriello, MD, and associates. In a research letter published in the December 1999 issue of Diabetes Care, Dr. Ceriello and associates presented data showing that consumption of two 5-ounce glasses of red wine with a meal by subjects with type 2 diabetes significantly reduced the compounds produced by the test meal that could cause vascular damage by the mechanism of "oxidative stress." The protective activity of white wine was only about 20 percent that of red wine.
It only takes adding 1-2 glasses a day to most diabetic diets to grow the health benefits of alcohol outlined above.