There’s no longer any need to feel guilty about having that glass or two of wine before you hit the hay. A new study has found doing just this could actually be good for your health, as well as helping you achieve your weight loss goals.
Two separate studies, one from Washington University and the other from Harvard, found a link between regular-to-moderate alcohol consumption and a healthy body weight.
The 13-year Harvard study included 20,000 women of a healthy body weight and analysed factors such as weight gain, physical activity and alcohol consumption. From the results, it was concluded that “compared with non-drinkers, initially normal weight women who consumed a light to moderate amount of alcohol gained less weight and reduced their risk of obesity.”
The study from Washington University, performed on overweight female mice, found that those that consumed an extract of resveratrol, an active ingredient in red wine, had an easier time losing weight and keeping it off. While this is not as conclusive as a human study, there’s no denying resvertarol’s “beneficial anti-obesity effects.”
But why is this so? When you consume wine, and more importantly resveratrol, your body produces more “brown” fat cells. These fat cells, as opposed to white fat cells, make it easier to lose weight and keep it off.
While we bet you’re already itching at the chance to go home and down a few reds, this is not a license to go and drink excessively as wine is also both high in sugar and in calories, and is linked to problems like liver damage if abusing alcohol becomes a long-term habit.
So go home, sit on the couch and enjoy a glass or two of your favourite red. Your waistline will thank you later.