Red Wine: Good Or Bad For Your Health?

Last Updated: February 9, 2026 by Michael Kahn. Published: February 9, 2026.

Trying to be more health conscious, and not sure whether to give up or continue drinking red wine? As you may have already discovered, there’s much debate as to whether red wine is a hero or a villain. For every headline claiming that red wine is good for your health, there’s another claiming that it will give you cancer. The truth is somewhere in the middle and it can only truly be understood by digging into the science. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do in this post – what do the experts say?

What’s the deal with resveratrol?

Resveratrol is an antioxidant found within the skin of red grapes. Many studies have been made into the benefits of resveratrol and have discovered that consuming this antioxidant regularly may lower risk of heart disease by lowering blood pressure. This is because resveratrol stimulates nitric oxide production within blood vessels, promoting vasodilation and causing blood pressure to increase. 

Within a litre of red wine, you’ll find anywhere between 0.2 and 5.8 mg of resveratrol. That’s typically more than you get from eating raw grapes, because the resveratrol is concentrated when producing red wine. It’s worth noting that white wine and rose wine contain much less resveratrol. 

Some claims have suggested that resveratrol within red wine may be responsible for the ‘French Paradox’ – the fact that the French have relatively low rates of heart disease despite diets high in saturated fat. However, others have argued that other dietary patterns and lifestyle preferences may be the cause of this. 

Other health claims have been made about resveratrol from its ability to reverse aging to its ability to counter diabetes, but the evidence for these isn’t as strong.

What about the effect of alcohol?

Red wine is an alcoholic drink and there’s no debating that alcohol has health risks. Drinking even small amounts of alcohol may put you at higher risk of developing certain cancer types. Drinking heavy amounts of alcohol is meanwhile linked to liver disease, while consuming alcoholic drinks before bed can interfere with sleep quality.

But what about heart health? Many studies have found that consumption of alcoholic drinks can increase blood pressure – but it depends on how much you drink. Usually, a short term rise in blood pressure will occur after drinking any more than 3 drinks. Regularly consuming 4 or more drinks in a single sitting can meanwhile lead to sustained high blood pressure.

This means that if you are drinking red wine regularly in large amounts, any heart health benefits are likely to be cancelled out.

So… good or bad?

Red wine can be good for your heart, provided that you consume it in moderation. This means not going through a whole bottle in one sitting and having regular alcohol-free days (or, better still, alcohol free weeks).

Remember that red wine does come with its health risks – if you have a family history of alcohol misuse, liver disease or certain cancers, you need to be cautious around any alcoholic drinks. There are no strong reasons to start drinking red wine. However, if you already drink red wine, continuing to drink the odd glass is unlikely to do you too much harm.