Compared with people who drank less than one glass of wine a month, people who drank three to 12 glasses of wine each month had a 38% lower risk of heart disease, according to the study, which has been published in the European Heart Journal.
They used data from a study measuring the impacts of a Mediterranean diet – a diet high in olive oil, vegetables, fruit, nuts and fish, and low in sweet or processed food and drink – on health among older adults from a Mediterranean population at a high risk of heart disease.
A bottle of wine a week, combined with a Mediterranean diet, could be as good as statins for heart health, academics have suggested.
After four or five years of follow up, there were 685 cases of heart disease, including heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular disease.
As well as completing questionnaires on their food and drink consumption, the 1,232 people involved in the research also provided urine samples at the start of the study and again one year later.
