We see you looking at the title of this article crossing your fingers that we have good news for you and not bad news. Let’s ease your fears. It’s both.

Unless you suffer from alcoholism or there’s a history of alcohol addiction in your family, we will not be telling you to give up wine completely. It’s okay. Breath that sigh of relief.

It has been a stressful year, after all. There have been so many unprecedented changes, and we’ve seen the wine memes to prove it. From parents having to help their kids navigate multiple websites to go to school from home to couples who have called it quits from the pressure of quarantine, 2020 has not been easy on anyone, and sometimes wine helps.

While wine doesn’t exactly fix anything, it can help us relax at times, but it’s important not to overdo it. If you stick to one glass of wine at night, there are actually a few benefits, but that doesn’t mean that it’s okay to drink a whole bottle every night. Far from it.

First, let’s all get on the same page about how many ounces equals one glass of wine. One glass of wine is 5 ounces. Got it? Good. Let’s continue. Do you want the good news first or the bad news first? Good news? Ok.

The good news is that drinking one glass of wine every night can improve your gut health and help fight cardiovascular disease. According to research done by the American Gastroenterology Journal, drinking red wine in moderation can help balance out the gut’s natural microbiome. According to a study by the Canadian Journal of Clinical Nutrition, small amounts of red wine can help prevent blood clots, and according to Harvard School of Public Health, red wine can also help raise lipoproteins (HDL), commonly known as “good cholesterol.”

Now for the bad news. Drinking a glass of wine can mess with your natural sleep patterns, and it’s easier to be become addicted to alcohol than you probably think. According to the National Institute of Health, it takes about 4-5 hours for wine to pass through your system, so if you drink a glass of wine before you go to bed, your sleep may be disrupted during the night as the alcohol leaves your body. 

As far as alcohol addiction, one glass of wine for a person not prone to addiction probably isn’t going to be a problem, but what happens when the wine glass gets bigger and you find yourself polishing off an entire bottle by yourself? Be sure to keep your drinking in check. Even small amounts of alcohol can cause addictive behavior.

How often do you drink wine? Do you think the benefits of drinking wine outweigh the negatives?