Will the 'Red Wine Diet' Be Latest Diet Trend?

For a woman who loves her nightly glass of Merlot or other red wine, it was like a chocolate lover waking up to a headline that read "Women who eat brownies and fudge gain less weight than women who nibble on carrot sticks." Because red wine and other alcoholic beverages are forbidden on many popular diet plans, many women assume their nightly glass of red wine hampers weight loss. So it was a bit of a happy surprise to many female red wine drinkers when the prestigious Harvard University Women's Health Study revealed just the opposite: women who consume light to moderate amounts of alcohol, especially red wine, gain less weight over time than their teetotaling sisters.

The study by researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston looked at the alcohol habits of 19,220 women ages 39 and older over a 13-year period. Although all of the women in the study gained weight during this time, the women who drank light to moderate amounts of red wine and other alcoholic beverages (about four ounces a day) gained fewer pounds overall.

How does red wine help prevent weight gain?

Theories abound on why red wine and other alcoholic beverages are diet friendly for women. Dr. Jennifer Ashton told CBS Early Show host Maggie Rodriguez, "Women tend to substitute alcohol for other potentially high carbohydrate foods." In other words, women who drink a Cosmopolitan or glass of red wine before dinner may pass on that high-calorie mud pie for dessert.

This substitution effect may explain why men who drink alcohol do not enjoy the same weight-loss benefit. "When men consume alcohol, they're adding those calories on top of what they're already eating," explained Dr. Ashton, who suggested that women may also metabolize alcohol differently than men.

Link between red wine, resveratrol and weight loss?

Another popular theory on why red wine could aid weight loss is the seemingly magical ingredient in red wine and grapes called resveratrol, a substance that has been shown to increase heart health by raising HDL (the good cholesterol) and helping prevent blood clots and artery damage, according to a Mayo Clinic article, Red wine and resveratrol: Good for your heart?

Red wine and weight loss: association vs. cause and effect

Theories aside, at this point the link between red wine and reduced weight gain is an association versus a cause and effect. It is possible that people who are able to moderate their alcohol consumption have a personality type that makes them more disciplined about food intake, as well.

Red wine, the new Hoodia?

Still, it will be interesting to see how this latest red wine diet research is used by diet hoaxters to push red wine "diet" products. The Harvard pedigree on the red wine weight loss study may spark a red wine diet craze that could make previous diet darlings, such as green tea and Hoodia, seem so 2009.

Sources:
http://theweek.com/article/index/200613/Wine_The_new_weightloss_miracle
http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/170/5/453?home
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/red-wine/HB00089
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/women-drinkers-gain-less-weight/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/03/glass_of_red_wine_a_day_may_ke.html