Red Wine No Better Than White in Terms of Cancer Risk

THURSDAY, March 13, 2025 (HealthDay News) — There is no significant difference in the association between red or white wine consumption and overall cancer risk, according to a meta-analysis published in a February issue of Nutrients.

Noting that alcoholic beverage consumption increases cancer risk, Rachel K. Lim, from The Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues identified studies examining wine and cancer risk to assess whether red wine is a healthier option. Twenty cohort studies and 22 case-control studies were included in the random-effects meta-analysis.

The researchers found that wine intake was not associated with overall cancer risk when comparing the highest versus lowest levels of consumption in an analysis of 95,923 participants; no differences were seen by wine type (summary relative risks [95 percent confidence intervals], 0.98 [0.87 to 1.10] and 1.00 [0.91 to 1.10] for red and white, respectively). Among women, white wine intake was significantly associated with an increased risk for cancer (summary relative risks [95 percent confidence intervals], 1.26 [1.05 to 1.52] and 0.91 [0.72 to 1.16] for white and red, respectively); a significant association was also seen in analyses restricted to cohort studies (summary relative risks [95 percent confidence intervals], 1.12 [1.03 to 1.22] and 1.02 [0.96 to 1.09] for white and red, respectively). A significant difference in associations between red and white wine intake was only seen in skin cancer risk among individual cancer sites (summary relative risks [95 percent confidence intervals], 1.22 [1.14 to 1.30] and 1.02 [0.95 to 1.09] for white and red, respectively).

“Our findings provided a critical public health message that drinking red wine may not be any better than drinking white wine in terms of cancer risk,” the authors write.

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