Here’s a study with some teeth: Researchers at Pavia University in Italy say drinking red wine in moderate amounts helps cleanse teeth of cavity-causing bacteria during and after meals. The study, which was done using non-alcoholic red wine from Veneto (too bad for the subjects), showed the wine effectively rinsed off the Streptococcus mutans bacteria from the subjects’ teeth. That common bacteria strain feeds on sugars in food and hastens enamel demineralization. Another Canadian study out of Lavel University in Quebec suggests that polyphenols found in red wine may prevent inflammatory gum disease.

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In other “wine may be good for you” news, a controversial study done in Spain showed that small amounts of alcohol – the equivalent of a quarter of the glass of wine a day – can help prevent heart disease, but – and here’s the controversial part --- high levels of alcohol, up to a bottle of wine a day, had the same protective effect. Before you go out and start chugging a bottle of wine every night, the study doesn’t actually say there is no harm in this, as the only factor measured was the heart-protecting effect, which was shown not to diminish with high alcohol consumption. It’s nevertheless encouraging news for moderate wine drinking.

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