Glass of Wine a Day Helps Prevent Diabetes

Having one glass of red wine daily can be as effective as the standard drugs prescribed for managing diabetes, according to researchers from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences of Vienna, Austria. It may seem odd to consider as to how a glass of wine a day helps prevent diabetes, but only till you are not aware of the fact that they are rich in plant chemicals known as polyphenols.

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The antioxidants known as polyphenaols found in red wine help to regulate blood sugar and thus, they can be used to control or prevent diabetes. The study was conducted on the action of polyphenols found in grapes. They react to a cell receptor called which has a significant role to play in the management of blood sugar, as well as energy storage and fat storage.

The researchers subsequently checked for the amount of polyphenols in a glass of wine and monitored their impact with regards to the effectiveness of one of the common diabetes drug. It was found that red wine can be as effective in managing the condition as the drug. Moreover, researchers compared the various wines for their polyphenol content and found that red wine scores over others in having a high content of the antioxidant.

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However, the researchers promptly revealed the flip side of depending too much on wine to prevent diabetes. They said that despite the fact that the polyphenol content in wines is high, but so is the number of calories that you consume. So, moderation is the key when looking to control your diabetes with wine. In fact you need to be conscious of the amount of calories that you have consumed with wine and balance that by reducing calories from other parts of your diet.

That is why this claim by the researchers that wine helps to prevent diabetes has come under some criticism as being too bold in its assertion with limited research. The sceptics say that the higher number of calories can lead to the patient becoming overweight, and this far outweighs whatever little benefit that the antioxidants are going to provide. This research is invalid if moderation in wine drinking is ignored. In a planned diet such as the Mediterranean diet, moderate red wine drinking is recommended precisely for its ability to control blood sugar level. The Mediterranean diet has been known to improve lifespan and bring down the risk of heart diseases.

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