The consumption of alcohol is always on the question of every health-enthusiast’s lips. Whether to consume any form of the drunk-inducing substance is constantly debated and is either highly encouraged or negated, only to see a switch in the argument shortly after. But a study has just come out that has proved drinking at least one glass of red wine a night is pretty good for your overall health.

Around 244 people with well-controlled type-2 diabetes and who had a low risk for alcohol abuse were requested to join in on the study conducted by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Each were assigned to drink five ounces of one of three things at dinner: mineral water, dry white wine or dry red wine. Participants also followed a Mediterranean diet without calorie restrictions—and kept it up for two years.

They found that the red wine drinkers had significantly increased their levels of good HDL cholesterol and had a more beneficial cholesterol ratio compared to the group that drank water. They were also the only group to experience a significant drop in components of metabolic syndrome. People who drank either red or white wine also reported better sleep quality than the group that drank water, and the researchers found no significant adverse effects with any group.

The key to it all is moderation – remember that. Those who took part in the study drank no more than one glass per evening. Pairing red wine – which has a variety of unique nutrients that are hard to find anywhere else – with dinner is the best way to keep down sugar levels:

If you have a glass of red wine with your evening meal tonight, your peak blood sugar, if you measured it an hour later, would be about 30% lower than if you hadn’t had the wine. The post-meal spike in sugar is one of Americans’ main sources of inflammation, which contributes to everything from diabetes to dementia to heart disease and arthritis. It makes your system more able to sop up the sugar and the calories that you’re consuming in the meal if you have a little alcohol before.

But remember, drinking daily could be a slippery slope so it is important to contain an element of control – or just get a bigger glass.

[source: time]