Consider being overweight or regularly consuming a moderate amount of alcohol, and try to envision how each situation impacts liver health. If you imagined that alcohol affects the health of your liver more, as many healthcare professionals assumed, you might be wrong. According to new research, being overweight impacts liver health more than moderate wine-drinking.
Scientists from Linkoping University in Sweden announced this finding in a recent issue of the journal Annals of Medicine. The team noted that in addition to being overweight, insulin inefficiency can also affect ones liver more than an occasional drink.
To test their theory, the team asked a wide range of adults to either consume one to two glasses of red wine per day or abstain over a three-month period. Being overweight was more highly correlated to having less-than-optimal liver health than drinking alcohol.
Furthermore, wine-drinkers had 16 percent better-balanced levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. The mechanism behind this effect was not determined, though previous studies have shown that red wine contains polyphenols, which have an inflammation balancing effect.
For individuals who want some of the benefits of wine without the buzz, vitamin supplements may provide the beneficial polyphenols, as well as vital vitamins and nutrients.