Is red wine good for you?

Yeah. It’s supposed to be good for your heart.
Hooray Cabernet! Way to go Merlot!

In moderation, yes. It contains a compound called reservatrol, which may help slow down the aging process.

Red wine (like many other foods and beverages) contains resveratrol, an antioxidant which has been shown to have positive health effects, as well as Proanthocyanidins, which are also believe to have antioxidant properties. (You can read a lot more about it by clicking on the links or googling.)

It’s good for you only if you drink it regularly and in moderation. People say it has resveratrol, which is good for your heart and slowing the aging process, but in order to get the health benefits of resveratrol, I read that you have to drink dozens and dozens of glasses of red wine a day, something that is unfeasible.

Yep, a glass a day is good for you, more than that and you are just in it for the buzz.

Epidemiologists wondered why the French, who eat a great deal of butter, cream and meat, did not have the same rate of cholesterol and heart problems that we see in the States.

One hypothesis was that red wine somehow proffered a type of protection. There are statistical reasons to believe this might be true, but correlation is not causation, and the studies so far have produced insufficient data.

Resveratrol is an entirely different matter. It does occur in red wine, and in other foods, but not in sufficient quantities to be efficacious.

Yes, but drinking it to the point of being drunk is harmful.
Moderation in all things!

Herd that it actually is.

Everyone should listen to @pdworkin. Yes, there is data saying that people that drink red wine have longer life spans, but there is not enough data to say which direction this correlation goes (as in, is it wine=longer life, which is what most people say, or is it that those with longer life spans happen to drink more wine? Or, another possibility, that it’s just a coincidence).

So, the answer is “not enough data”. Really, anyone who says that it does is going off of hearsay. Even antioxidants do not have proven effects, all hearsay, not enough data. The currently booming industry of health drinks would like you to think otherwise, of course.

That being said, there is pretty much no evidence to say that drinking it in moderation will hurt you, as far as I know, so there’s probably no real reason to not do it. In moderation, of course.

also, @La_chica_gomela, you should read that article on Resveratrol. It clearly states in the first paragraph that most of the health qualities ascribed to it have never been replicated in humans, it has not extended the lives of mice in any trial, and the only thing is has been observed to do in humans, lowering blood sugar, happened at very high quantities. Much more then the amount in quite a few bottles of wine, so it really can’t be the cause of the possible health benefits.

@BhacSsylan: I did read the article. I don’t believe I misstated anything in it.

“Red wine (like many other foods and beverages) contains resveratrol, an antioxidant which has been shown to have positive health effects”. I suppose you are not misstating, but you are being misleading. It has not been shown to have positive health effects in humans in any sort of noticeable amount. It only has one effect, unconnected to antioxidant properties, and at prohibitively high doses. One cannot see that, and then say that it is the cause of positive health effects in red wine.

It’s hard to know what to believe when there is an entire unregulated industry (Supplements) that is devoted to selling you questionable nostrums at high prices using sophisticated advertising.

Whether or not it’s healthy is besides the point. Red wine is one of the finest drinks there is. I’d drink it even if I knew it was poisonous.

But I think saying red wine is healthy is like saying chocolate is healthy. You don’t have to make excuses for wanting to drink a ton of red wine or eat a ton of chocolate. Just pig out. They’re awesome.

Red wine has positive mental health properties- cabernet sauvignon

Yes and you’ll have the same advantage by eating dark grapes or consuming other natural grape products. As for wine, It’s only good for your heart if you drink 1 glass (4 oz.) of red wine a day. Men, no more than 2 glasses. It’s the grape skin; I know there are red grape skin antioxidant drinks and tablets used as dietary/health supplements.

It sure helps wine sales. A paragraph from Mayo Clinic article

“Neither the American Heart Association nor the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommend that you start drinking alcohol just to prevent heart disease. Alcohol can be addictive and can cause or worsen other health problems.”
Drinking too much increases your risk of high blood pressure, high triglycerides, liver damage, obesity, certain types of cancer, accidents and other problems. In addition, drinking too much alcohol regularly can cause cardiomyopathy — weakened heart muscle — causing symptoms of heart failure in some people. If you have heart failure or a weak heart, you should avoid alcohol completely. If you take aspirin daily, you should avoid or limit alcohol, depending on your doctor’s advice. You also shouldn’t drink alcohol if you’re pregnant. If you have questions about the benefits and risks of alcohol, talk to your doctor about specific recommendations for you.”
From the article related/before that:

“Most research on resveratrol has been done on animals, not people. Research in mice given resveratrol suggests that the antioxidant might also help protect them from obesity and diabetes, both of which are strong risk factors for heart disease. However, those findings were reported only in mice, not in people. In addition, to get the same dose of resveratrol used in the mice studies, a person would have to drink over 60 liters of red wine every day.”
“Some research shows that resveratrol could be linked to a reduced risk of inflammation and blood clotting, both of which can lead to heart disease. More research is needed before it’s known whether resveratrol was the cause for the reduced risk.”