Alcohol and Heart Disease

2 things inspired me to write this post:

1. I recently attended (OK fine I was only on the registration table) a conference for the Society for Free Radical Research (no it's not a political movement, it's about chemistry)
2. Martin's post about things that are bad for you that are good for you

I will simply be quoting parts of the abstract for Prof Ian Puddey's talk entitled "Oxidative stress, nutrition & alcohol".

"Many foods and beverages are now understood to have a substantial content of antioxidants... Claims of antioxidant effects for flavonoid-rich beverages like red wine may also have been overstated, ignoring the pro-oxidant effects of the beverage alcohol content itself... We have identified, however, a fall in plasma isoprostanes after drinking de-alcoholised red wine in contrast to an increase seen with either red wine or beer."

Moral of the story: come on my non-alcoholic wine, chocolate and cheese tour of the Swan Valley in January so that you can eat chocolate and drink de-alcoholised red wine to prevent heart disease!

For more info relating to cardiovascular disease and red wine, check this journal article