People who prefer white wine have a reason to rejoice. Recent study has shown that white wine just as healthy as red wine. According to traditional notion, red wine is better than white wine for heart as it contains resveratrol, which is said to protect against both heart disease and cancer. White wine lacks resveratrol as it is fermented only from the pressed juice of the grape. Resveratrol is found only in grape skin.

Recently, researchers found that white wine is also good for heart. In the study, some rats were given measured doses of red or white Italian wines while others were fed "polyphenols", health-giving plant chemicals found in white as well as red wine. Resveratrol is one type of polyphenol. 

Researchers found that among rats that suffered induced heart attacks, animals given red or white wine, or polyphenols, experienced less damage than those fed water or straight alcohol.

The study suggested that white wine protected the mitochondria in heart cells, the rod-shaped cell structures that act as energy-generating "powerplants". Earlier studies have shown that damage to mitochondria caused by lack of oxygen and nutrients can lead cells to commit suicide. 

The study showed that mitochondria from wine-drinking rats looked in better shape, and fewer of the animals' heart cells entered a suicidal state. This was also true for rats given three kinds of polyphenol - resveratrol from red and tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol from white wine. Researchers claim that while not identical, all three compounds are similar in structure and may activate similar biological reactions.

Lead author of the study, Dipak Das, of the University Of Connecticut School Of Medicine in Farmington, said "The flesh of the grape can do the same job as the skin. We can safely say that one to two glasses of white wine per day works exactly like red wine." He added that evidence may yet emerge of an "English paradox" because beer was also "cardioprotective".