What might surprise you about the impact of alcohol on heart disease? How can wine drinkers reduce the risk of certain cancers with one supplement? Does wine help protect against cognitive decline and dementia? Why do some organizations make extreme recommendations for eliminating alcohol?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with author Tony Edwards.

You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks

Giveaway

Three of you will win a copy of his terrific new book, The Very Good News About Wine. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!

Highlights

What positive health effects were found in Harvard’s long-term research on alcohol and heart disease?

How can wine consumption decrease the risk of certain cancers?

What did the Mayo Clinic study find about the relationship between women and red wine?

How does the concept of absolute risk versus relative risk contribute to sensational headlines?

What’s the connection between folate and cancer risk and how does alcohol consumption affect this dynamic?

How might wine protect against cognitive decline and dementia?

Why does wine play such an important part in the longevity puzzle for certain populations?

What is the surprising relationship between wine consumption and inflammation?

Why does Tony believe the World Health Organization's 2023 declaration that no level of alcohol consumption is safe is rooted in an anti-alcohol agenda rather than evidence?

What’s happening with alcohol-labeling legislation in Ireland, and how might it spread to other countries?

What were the problems with the controversial drinking guidelines proposed in Canada, and where did they come from?

Key Takeaways

Folate is depleted by alcohol. Harvard researchers discovered that if you give women folate in supplement form, women drinkers will reduce their risk of breast cancer massively to the extent of wiping out the risk.

Wine helps protect against cognitive decline and dementia. According to a large Swedish study that showed that women who drank wine exclusively had a 75% reduced risk of Alzheimer's.

Some organizations make extreme recommendations for eliminating alcohol consumption altogether, despite the research showing otherwise and Tony thinks the problem is that they find the idea of the J curve very difficult to explain.

About Tony Edwards

Former BBC science documentary producer/director/writer. Now specializing in medical research journalism, Tony Edwards is a former BBC TV producer/ director/ writer, with over 80 science documentaries to his credit, some winning awards from such bodies as the British Medical Association. After the BBC, he wrote on science, technology and medicine for The Sunday Times, Readers Digest, Daily Mail and a wide variety of medical magazines. He is married to the broadcaster and novelist Debbie Rix; they have two grown-up children, three hens and four cats, and live in rural Kent.

To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/310.

Have the health risks of moderate wine consumption been grossly overstated? How does moderate wine consumption reduce heart disease? What is the ideal amount and pattern of wine consumption for maximum health benefits, and how does it differ between men and women?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with author Tony Edwards.

You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks

Giveaway

Three of you will win a copy of his terrific new book, The Very Good News About Wine. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!

Highlights

How did Tony’s experience as a BBC producer and a medical columnist shape his approach to researching and writing about wine?

Why does Tony believe the glycemic index is more accurate than the calorie theory for measuring food values?

What impact does alcohol have on your insulin response?

What does research show about the benefits of dry wine for diabetics?

What motivated Tony to revisit the topic of alcohol and health a decade after his first book, The Good News About Booze?

Which aspects of synthesizing decades of research on wine and health did Tony find most challenging?

Why was wine prescribed in UK hospitals and by physicians during the Prohibition era in North America?

What is the ideal amount and pattern of wine consumption for maximum health benefits?

How does the J-curve demonstrate the extent of the health benefits of wine for heart health and diabetes?

Does the alcohol in wine influence its health benefits?

What are the health implications of non-alcoholic wines compared to moderate consumption of regular wine?

Key Takeaways

Tony explains that the alcohol consumption guidelines are completely the inverse of what the evidence says. He wondered why the guidelines were being reduced to a level that actually no one benefits from moderate wine consumption. Study after study shows wine is really good news.

Tony observes that it’s actually the collection of polyphenols in wine that have the beneficial effect rather than simply resveratrol alone. It's the interaction of these polyphenols with each other that produces a benefit.

Tony notes that a study in 2018 came to the conclusion that for men, the maximum optimum intake of wine per day was 60 grams, which is about two-thirds of the bottle, and for women, half that.

About Tony Edwards

Former BBC science documentary producer/director/writer. Now specializing in medical research journalism, Tony Edwards is a former BBC TV producer/ director/ writer, with over 80 science documentaries to his credit, some winning awards from such bodies as the British Medical Association. After the BBC, he wrote on science, technology and medicine for The Sunday Times, Readers Digest, Daily Mail and a wide variety of medical magazines. He is married to the broadcaster and novelist Debbie Rix; they have two grown-up children, three hens and four cats, and live in rural Kent.

To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/309.

Why do certain musty or animalistic aromas, like barnyard or manure, become more acceptable to wine lovers over time? What does minerality really mean when it comes to wine? Why is mouthfeel so important to appreciating wine? How does the colour of wine influence our perception of how it tastes?

In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Master of Wine, Gus Zhu.

You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks

Giveaway

Two of you will a copy of his terrific new book, Behind the Glass: The Chemical and Sensorial Terroir of Wine Tasting.

To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you’ve posted a review of the podcast. I’ll choose two people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck!

Highlights

Why do certain musty or animalistic aromas, like barnyard or manure, become more acceptable to wine lovers over time?

What’s behind the perception of saltiness and minerality in wine?

How do we misunderstand sweetness when it comes to wine?

Why have we developed more complex perceptions of bitterness, and how does it influence our experience of tannins in wine?

Why is mouthfeel so important in wine tasting?

How does colour affect our perception of wine?

What are the most interesting aspects of oak aging in wine, and why is there so much diversity?

Why is it important to embrace sensory differences in wine tasting?

Key Takeaways

Gus believes that the wine industry or even the media is trying to promote a certain style of wine and make people believe that many people love wines that have specific smells and taste like barnyard.

Gus observes that acidity and minerality are such vague terms and concepts that people in the wine industry discuss. When people say minerality, they may be referring to many different things.

Mouthfeel adds several other dimensions to taste, which makes wine tasting even more interesting. When blind tasting, many people depend on smell but he encourages them to pay attention to the textual, tactile sensations from the wine as well.

People usually look at the color first because it's straightforward, even though we could see colours a bit differently from each other. Even though we want to be objective, we cannot. We could be even more biased when we see things first. For example, there are already studies showing that if you color white wine as a red wine colour, and ask people to smell it, they came up with all these descriptors that are related to red wines.

About Gus Zhu

Gus Zhu is the first Chinese national to become a Master of Wine. He works as a research and development scientist at Harv 81 Group, specializing in chemical analysis and sensory studies of aroma compounds in wine, cork, and oak. Gus holds a Master of Science degree in Viticulture and Enology from UC Davis, which he earned in 2017, and achieved his MW qualification in 2019. In addition to his research in flavor chemistry and sensory science, Gus is a professional wine educator, offering tutorials to wine enthusiasts around the world.

To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/308.