Drinking wine could boost skin health, suggest new findings

It’s the news we’ve all been waiting for: some wines could improve ageing skin, new research suggests.

Muscadine wines are made from muscadine grapes which are native to the US, and scientists from the University of Florida have discovered that they may help sagging skin retain its elasticity and water.

But, before you put in your wine order, there’s a catch. The scientists – crucially – studied the impacts of wine that was de-alcoholised.

This is the first randomised clinical trial to assess the impacts of non-alcoholic wine consumption on skin health. The findings were presented at the American Society for Nutrition’s 2023 conferencein Boston, USA.

In the study, women who drank two glasses of de-alcoholised muscadine wine every day showed improved skin elasticity and water retention after six weeks compared to women who took a placebo.

The researchers emphasise that trying this method with alcoholic wine may produce entirely different results.

“We used de-alcoholised muscadine wine because we were interested in the effect of the bioactive compounds in wine, specifically the polyphenols, on skin health,” said food scientist Dr Lindsey Christman.

Polyphenols are chemical compounds found naturally in many plants. They have several benefits to human health, including aiding digestion and regulating blood sugar levels. It’s these polyphenols that the scientists believe are responsible for the benefits of muscadine wine.

Previous trials have already suggested that the polyphenols in muscadine wine help to decrease inflammation and oxidative stress (imbalances of oxygen and the body’s ability to repair the damage).

In the trial, 17 women aged 40-67 were randomly assigned either the wine or a placebo that looked and tasted similar to the wine but did not contain the polyphenols.

While the team discovered the wine’s positive impact on skin elasticity and water retention, no significant difference was observed in wrinkles or skin smoothness between the two groups.

The small sample size of the trial means that a larger and more diverse study group will be needed in the future to confirm and strengthen the results. Further, these initial results come before apeer-reviewed paper, so the findings do not yet prove that de-alcoholised muscadine wine causes better skin elasticity.

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