Research done in Denmark has concluded that people who drink wine are less likely to die young than those who drink beer and spirits and this backs up other studies that have shown that people who drink wine have much healthier eating habits than people who tend to drink beer and spirit and so it could be this that is actually the beneficial aspect of drinking wine and not the wine itself.

The researchers in Denmark decided to test the theory by looking at the connection between those people who bought beer and wine along with other food items in supermarkets. They did this by looking at over 3.5 million shopping transactions randomly chosen from 98 Danish supermarkets over 24 weeks and then analysed the results to see people's shopping habits.

The transactions were classed as either wine only, beer only, mixed or as non-alcohol and the all the items purchased as well as the quantity, price and the total spend was recorded. The results showed that the wine buyers tended to buy greater quantities of olives, fruit and veg as well as chicken, cooking oil, lower fat cheeses, milk, and meat when compared to the people who bought more beer.

The people who bought beer tended to buy greater quantities of ready cooked meals, sugar, chips, pork, sausages, lamb, butter and margarine as well as more soft drinks when compared to the people who bought wine.

The results are very important as they undermine the thesis that says that wine in itself is good for you and they show that it is probably the diet that wine drinkers tend to follow as being the main reason for their better health. The results also therefore show that is is not necessarily the beer that causes bad health in beer drinkers but the fact that they eat food which is less nutritious.

Other surveys done in the US and in Europe have shown that people who drink wine tend to follow a more Mediterranean diet with many different fruits and vegetables as well as fish and olive oil.