health benefits of wine - a new twist

A study at UNC concludes that drinking wine, by itself, does not necessarily make you healthier (that's in contrast to the French Paradox*), but wine drinkers eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer red meats and fried foods, they exercise more, and they have lower body mass index scores, as compared to non-drinkers and drinkers who primarily drink beer or spirits.

One could be forgiven for concluding that wine drinkers are better-educated about lifestyle choices. I would expect that wine drinking correlates pretty well with college education and with income, and I think it's a no-brainer (subject to many exceptions, of course) that generally, more school and/or higher income lead to better lifestyle choices.

You can read the abstract here.

* The French Paradox is: "How can the French eat so many of those cream-based sauces on rich meals, and yet be thinner and fitter, and have fewer heart attacks, than other populations?" I think that later findings have indicated (1) the French don't eat more cream than others do; and (2) the French walk a lot more than some other populations (such as Americans, who walk very little and whose lifestyles often involve suburban living which requires extensive use of automobiles instead of walking); and (3) the hype about resveratrol--the allegedly life-lengthening substance in red grapes and red wine--was probably at least mostly just hype.

(photo courtesy of tasteofhome.com)