RED WINE AND WHITE WINE | What is the Difference and Which is Best | Dr Anil Kumar | orange Health

If you see the present culture of food and drink across the world, it has become a fashion that eating a variety of non-vegetarian foods, which are cooked in a variety of novel ways, and also consuming different types of alcohol, which come from across the globe, is now a fashion. Even in our country, including our Telugu-speaking states, it doesn't really matter what is your socioeconomic status. There is always an alcoholic drink which suits your purse and your taste. Unfortunately, this has nothing to do with gender anymore. Men and women are equal, and they consume equal quantity of alcohol. They also have gone to the extent of saying, with the various types of the taxes which are levied on alcohol drinks, on getting licenses, and on running bars where it is predominantly served, they feel that they contribute to the economic growth of the country. Perhaps it is true in a sense, but that's not really the desirable way of contributing to society. One state after the other, they are in a competition on how much they have spent and earned during the New Year's Day celebration across the country. And we have the dubious distinction of getting the highest revenue of any state when December 31st passed on to 1st of Jan, 2023. The question which is asked to the doctor today is, which wine is better, red wine or white wine? As you know, alcohol is in different types of origin. Some of them is made from grapes. Some alcohol is made from barley, some from wheat, and some from a variety of other carbohydrate-rich foods which are fermented over a period of time, and different types of wines and whiskeys are made. Today, you also have classes which tell you how to taste wine. In other words, if you want to become a connoisseur of wine, there are people who will come and take classes for you on how to taste wine. And people take pride in identifying the origin, in fact, the very vineyard from which this particular wine has originated. Medically speaking, there are what are called as antioxidants in the majority of foods. For example, you take fresh fruit, you'll have a lot of antioxidants. These antioxidants will act on oxygen-free radicals which emanate from a variety of chemical reactions in the human body. And these oxygen-free radicals can be injurious to your health, can produce cancers, can also produce atherosclerosis or blocks in your heart and in blood vessels. And therefore, antioxidants in general, they are good. But there are much better ways of taking plenty of antioxidants. For example, if you take fresh seasonal fruits, you have more than antioxidants than what you require. But then you don't have to really go for red wine to have that fractional increment of antioxidants, and then also take up all the ill effects of alcohol. Alcohol damages of your heart, we call it as alcoholic cardiomyopathy. It produces liver disease, we call it alcoholic cirrhosis. It produces various cancers, and it also adds empty calories. It increases obesity. You keep on taking various types of non-vegetarian food with it. And therefore, finally, you will be in calorie surplus, in alcohol surplus, of course. And then you will be getting a variety of chronic, sometimes incurable illnesses. So don't worry about which wine is better. The fellow who told red wine is better than white wine is also from the group of Alcohol Anonymous, I suppose. And therefore, don't fall prey to such useless, baseless proposals. And in general, medically, I would say, alcohol is bad for you. If you say, I can't live without alcohol, reduce it as much as possible. But then don't ever say you consume red wine thinking that it has got antioxidants, and you consume a lot of dark chocolate for the same reason. You need tons of chocolate, and you need barrels of wine to get the benefit. Meanwhile, you will not be there to see what other beneficial effects you've got, because you'll be long dead. Beware, and reduce your alcohol consumption to zero.