Leading nutritionist and health scientist Tim Spector, who set up the Zoe app and was a leading commentator during the Covid pandemic, has spoken about his passion for a couple of glasses of wine a day.
Spector, who is a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, explained in an interview to The Times about the health benefits of drinking wine, and how when drunk in moderation it can assist with reducing the risk of heart disease.
He drinks using a 80/20 rule, where for 80% of the time he sticks to dietary principles, and then for 20% of the time, he will indulge in whatever he chooses. In this context, Spector allows himself a couple of glasses of wine.
Going further into his methodology of drinking, he told the newspaper that he has two glasses of wine a night, and “usually” has one night off a week, but “not always” — and that wine was his “weakness”.
Diet
He normally drinks the wine after a healthy diet throughout the day, he said, which includes yoghurt, kefir, Spanish figs, peaches, nuts, seeds, freeze-dried plants and the whole food supplement called Zoe Daily 30, which contains vitamins, minerals, Omega 3, and 7,000 plant chemicals.
It isn’t the first time that Spector has spoken about the benefits of drinking wine, and he pointed to how red wine’s polyphenols, as regularly reported in the drinks business and associated scientific studies, can help with a variety of risks associated with brain and heart health.
He said: “I can’t deny it, I like wine. I’ve always had an interest in it. But the epidemiological evidence is quite clear that alcohol is bad for you and, overall, is best avoided. If you do want to have a drink while you socialise, red wine is your best bet. Studies consistently show that drinking one or two glasses of red wine a day reduces the risk of heart disease. Although, overall mortality probably doesn’t change much.
“This effect is probably due to the polyphenols in red wine. Thankfully, young wines tend to have higher levels of polyphenols, so you don’t need to splash the cash on vintage plonk to reap the health benefits. White wine, on the other hand, has three times less polyphenols, so their health effects are obliterated by the alcohol content.
“If you do plan on having a glass of red, enjoy it with a meal, and don’t have it late at night – alcohol can affect your sleep quality and duration. I tend to drink my wine earlier in the evening or as an aperitif (though I sometimes forget).”
Risk
The news comes as another study was recently released which highlighted how red wine can lower the risk of dementia.
It follows years of reports of the benefits of polyphenols in scientific journals, and how moderate wine consumption can be beneficial when part of an overall healthy diet, including the much-discussed and lauded “Mediterranean diet”.
Spector’s comments also follow Sir David Spiegelhalter, a leading statistician who became world-famous for his crunching of Covid data hitting out at public health experts’ “pointless obsession” with low levels of alcohol consumption.
In a powerful and damning critique on the BBC’s World Service The Food Chain programme, Sir David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University said the link between alcohol and an early death was exaggerated.
He said that statistically the overall risk of one beer or wine per day on your life expectancy — which is within current UK government guidelines — has no higher impact than driving a car or eating bacon.
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