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CNN Live Today

Study: White Wine Helps Lungs

Aired May 20, 2002 - 11:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Raise a glass and breathe easier. New indications today that a little white wine might help your lungs.

To help us out how that connection is made, we check in with our medical correspondent Rea Blakey, who is standing by in Washington.

REA BLAKEY, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I know you are curious about that.

HARRIS: Oh, yes.

BLAKEY: Say this word to yourself: flavonoids. Keep repeating that, and I'll explain,

HARRIS: OK.

BLAKEY: There may be another good reason, as you say, to responsibly drink white wine. Years of research shows that there's a positive link between people who drink one to three glasses a day of wine.

Usually, red wine is what we hear about in regards to heart health. Well, now there is evidence that consuming white wine may have a positive effect on lung health. This research comes from a study presented at the American Thoracic Society's international conference in Atlanta.

Researchers asked about 1,500 adults about their lifetime alcohol consumption, as well as their alcohol use during the previous month. Then they measured each person's lung function and took into account a lot of variables, like smoking habits, how much they weigh, whether or not they eat healthy generally.

The bottom line: People who drank white wine had greater lung function -- that's a good thing -- than those who consumed red wine or any other alcoholic beverages.

That special word I mentioned before, Leon, flavonoids -- that's why. The study's lead researchers notes that white wine has a higher level of flavonoids, and those are anti-oxidant molecules that can protect against heart disease and cancer, we're told, in red wines. And according to this study, they support good lung health.

Red wine contains a whole different set of flavonoids than white wines, but both of them do contain them. And they study indicates that both types will bolster long health, even though white wines, apparently, are superior.

Now, the major source of flavonoids, in case you are not really a wine drinker, in the diet you can you get it in almost any fruit, fruit products, tea, soy; flavonoids are widely available. However, white wine is as well -- Leon.

HARRIS: Yes, it is.

Let me ask you, though: I did get a chance to peek in a little bit at that report here, and it also mentions something about the white wine-only drinkers generally were the best educated. How convinced are these people that it wasn't that the education level, which means that they probably get better exercise, eat better foods overall, may have something do with it, not just with the wine?

BLAKEY: Or certainly that they would have a greater sense of awareness. That's why they try to factor out things like smoking habits, like what people eat. They try to take away any conceivable variable that would make one group skew one way or another. And when they factored out all those issues, they basically come down to the white wine being the source of the flavonoids that were most effective in regards to promoting lung health.

HARRIS: So now we got the folks in here chipping in here and speaking on behalf of the red wine. Now we have got folks speaking out on behalf of the white wine. What's next -- for the rose? Anything there?

BLAKEY: You know, it's always possible.

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