Should Red Wine Be Considered a Functional Food?

Abstract

Functional foods may be regarded as foods that have nutritional value, but in particular, they also have beneficial effects on one or more body functions. Thus, functional foods may improve health and/or reduce the risk of developing certain diseases when taken in amounts that can be consumed in a normal diet. Based on nearly 2 decades of research since the term "French paradox" was first coined in 1992, wine would appear to fit this definition. Yet there seems to be reluctance to consider wine as a functional food. In this review, we present an overview of the accumulated evidence for the health benefits of wine-and its key phenolic components such as resveratrol, quercetin, catechin-and show that these alone are not enough to firmly establish wine as a functional food. What is required is to create clearly defined products based on wine that are targeted to consumers' needs and expectations when it comes to purchasing functional foods. Moreover, the crucial question of alcohol and health also needs to be addressed by the functional food industry. Suggestions are presented for working through this issue, but in many regards, wine is like any other food-it should be consumed sensibly and in amounts that are beneficial to health. Overindulgence of any kind does not promote good health.

Assessment of Some Australian Red Wines for Price, Phenolic Content, Antioxidant Activity, and Vintage in Relation to Functional Food Prospects

“…Catechin, quercetin, and resveratrol are among the most studied phenolic compounds in terms of their biological activities and potential health benefits in the human diet (Yoo and others 2010). The concentrations of these compounds in wine samples were determined via HPLC (Figure 1), and Table 2 (Cabernet Sauvignon wines) and 3 (Shiraz wines) show that the levels in the individual wines varied considerably.…”

“…In in vitro studies, catechin, quercetin, and resveratrol are the major compounds that have been extensively studied for human health benefits. These compounds have been shown, by numerous in vivo animal studies, to have an antioxidant effect (Yoo and others 2010); further, long‐term epidemiological studies showed that moderate alcohol or wine consumption reduced the risk of various diseases (German and Walzem 2000). Human intervention studies investigating moderate levels of consumption also support the health benefits of wine.…”

“…However, despite consumer acceptance of the potential health benefits of wine consumption, wine is yet to be marketed as a functional food, which may be defined as “whole foods and fortified, enriched, or enhanced foods that have a potentially beneficial effect on health when consumed as part of a varied diet on a regular basis, at effective levels” (Hasler and Brown 2009). Reasons for this have been reviewed by us recently (Yoo and others 2010) and include the need to “create clearly defined products based on wine that are targeted to consumers’ needs and expectations when it comes to purchasing functional foods” and to address “the crucial question of alcohol and health.” Furthermore, functionality alone is not enough to be successful in the functional food market—there is a requirement for convenience, acceptable taste, and pricing. In this context, this study aims to assess Australian wine with respect to functional components (phenolic content and antioxidant activity), price and vintage to better understand how wine may be positioned in the functional food market.…”

Resveratrol, phenolic antioxidants, and saccharides in South American red wines

“…2 A possible explanation could be wine being a significant source of phenolic compounds, with antioxidant properties. 3 Phenolic compounds in wines have been widely studied, and epidemiological studies show that its long-term moderate consumption is associated with a prolonged life span in humans. 4,5 Polyphenols (phenolic acids and derivatives, such as gallic acid, caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, and so on), flavonoids (catechin, epicatechin, quercetin, rutin, myricetin, etc.…”

Fast analysis of amino acids in wine by capillary electrophoresis with laser‐induced fluorescence detection

“…A moderate intake of wine has been traditionally associated with health benefits; even recently, scientific studies have found beneficial effects of a diet including reasonable amounts of wine [1][2][3]. For example, the health-promoting effects of red wine have been proposed as the basis of the socalled ''French paradox'' [4].…”