how does drinking red and white wine affect diabetes?

I have also heard that a 1.5 ounce shot of vodka taken with supper can help prevent blood sugar from rising and help prevent diabetes.

Thank you so much for the information .... M a habitual drinker from the last 15 yrs.I have stoped consuming whisky but have the urge to drink in the evenings hours. Please let me if i can consume 375 ml wine everyday red or white you suggest.
M diabetic from the last 8 yrs my sugar levels are normal and take metformin/glimepride twice a day.
Pls suggest

thanks

Red wine, great to remain healthy!

Here is the magic word "RESVERATROL"

Resveratrol can be found in varying amounts in wine. As a general rule, red wines have more resveratrol than whites. This is because red wines are fermented on the grape skins longer than white wines - thus many of the anti-oxidants (including resveratrol) that are naturally present in the grape skins are extracted into the wine.

The most imminent breakthrough for resveratrol has been for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

In January of 2008 Sirtris Pharmaceuticals announced that its version of Resveratrol "significantly" lowered glucose (in an oral glucose tolerance test) in HUMANS with Type 2 diabetes. Doses of 2.5 or 5 grams were administered orally once a day for 28 days. The patients experienced "no serious adverse events and no dose related adverse events" - in other words, Resveratrol was well tolerated by the patients. http://www.resveratrol.com/default.html

This study is significant because it shows that Resveratrol could be used to treat type 2 diabetes in the near future and that it seems to be well tolerated by patients at large doses (2.5 to 5 grams per day). Smaller doses might have the same benefical effects as indicated by an October study where the equivalent of 15 mg. of Resveratrol effectively increased insulin sensitivity in diabetic mice.......

Back in 2007, another study was released in the publication Cell that indicated that resveratrol administered orally to mice protected them from gaining weight and developing diabetes. A lead researcher of the study, Johan Auwerx, said a study of men and women from Finland revealed that resveratrol will likely produce similar results in humans.

It is possible that resveratrol fights diabetes in two ways; by reducing glucose and improving insulin sensitivity and by increasing animals' metabolisms (thereby decreasing weight gain - a main contributor of type 2 diabetes).

In moderation anyone can benefit from including red wine into their diets. I stick to 4-5 oz glass of red wine 2-3 nights/week. But I also take Resveratrol supplements.

Diane - thanks for the link to the wine education blog by the diabetic. As a sommelier in training, I'm always looking for information that would be helpful for "challenged" wine drinkers.

Hey, Rochelle, great question.

One thing to know right up front is that dry red wine generally has little or no sugar in it, while white wine tends to have more.

The key to the medicinal effects of wine lies in the skins of the grapes they're made with. The red-purple color of red wine comes from a substance called anthocyanin, which is found in the skin on the grape. (It also is responsible for the color of black olives, strawberries, cherries and raspberries).

Anthocyanin is part of a group of chemicals that are called flavonoids. They help regulate cell growth; they are antioxidants; they reduce inflammation and they help prevent blood clots. White wine -- made from "white" grapes -- does not have nearly the level of flavonoids that the red wine has.

Red wine can also reduce oxidative stress that is caused by increased blood glucose levels after meals, according to Antonio Ceriello, MD, and associates. In a letter in the December 1999 issue of Diabetes Care, they showed that drinking two 5-ounce glasses of red wine with a meal by subjects with type 2 diabetes significantly reduced the compounds produced by the meal that could cause vascular damage by the mechanism of "oxidative stress." (Oxidation of LDL "bad" cholesterol causes fatty buildup in the arteries.)

Here's a Diabetes.org page on wine and flavonoids:

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-cholesterol/faqs-redwine.jsp

Here's a very interesting blog written by a diabetic who pays attention to the wine issue (and also stresses testing):

http://blog.wineeducation.com/2007/03/diabetes-and-wine.html

And here's a story from Science Daily that discusses a study that measured how the chemicals in red wine and red grapes affected insulin in mice:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071002131152.htm