Finally scientists have finally found something to celebrate about the female condition. It seems women who drink wine put on fewer pounds than teetotallers of the same sex. So you can tuck into a couple of glasses of wine every night and still stay slim. There are a couple of provisos: limiting yourself to drinking two glasses a night and those glasses should contain red wine.

Women can drink white wine, beer and spirits and not gain much weight, but the American study found that red wine drinkers gained the least.

So what’s going on?

Although wine contains calories, the US researchers believe the 19,000 women in the study may have substituted it for other food.

At the start of the 13 year study all the late 30s and older women volunteers were of normal weight. As the study progressed all gained some weight, but the red wine drinkers gained the least while just over forty per cent of the non-drinkers became overweight or obese. The study concluded that the alcohol absenters gained the most weight while moderate drinkers gained the least.

It seems the women in the study who scoffed wine had little room left for scoffing food, so their overall calorie intake did not go up very much.

Unfortunately the scientists believe the findings may not apply to men. When men drink they tend not substitute wine for food but consume both.

Which is a shame because now there’s no excuse for not sharing an evening’s bottle of red but it could be an excuse for an unequal sized serving of the plates of nosh.

PG Wine Reviews

The Takeout Italian Sangiovese 2015
£4.50 Sainsbury’s
Light and fruity red with aromas and flavours of cherries and violets.

Carlino Rosso, Sicily
£5.99 Majestic
A bargain buster from Majestic that will match any food and it tastes great too – blackberry, coffee and cocoa.

Majestic Loves Chilean Merlot 2016
£6.99 Majestic
Another from the own-label ‘Loves’ range – which this time tastes of plums, cherries and milk chocolate.

Montgras Reserva Espesial Chilean Carmenere 2016
£6.99 Co-op (down from £8.99 until July 4)
Sweet cherry and mocha flavours.

Pizo Spainish Carinena 2015
£9.99 Virgin Wines
A soft red with flavours of plum with hints of toffee and liquorice.

Changyu Noble Dragon Chinese Red 2013
£10 Sainsbury’s
This blend of two Cabernet grapes – Cabernet Sauvignon and the lesser known Cabernet Gernischt – is deeply fruity and a taste of things to come from China.

Tweet me a wine question @huxelrebe
© Paula Goddard 2017 www.paulagoddard.com