Not sure if many of you saw the recent study that shows an increased risk of melanoma for white wine drinkers. I tried to find the least technical article to break down what the study results actually say, and I think this one from Forbes does the trick.
In summary, the writer of the article (who’s a professor of biomedical engineering, computer science, and biostatistics – what the heck does he do all day?) states that the mechanism of the study points to a very small but worrisome increase of melanoma for white wine drinkers – 0.24%. Since he seems to know statistics a hell of a lot better than I do, I’ll take his word on the math.
There is no conclusive reason why white wine ups the risk of melanoma, even slightly, although the study’s authors seem to think that it might be a specific cancer-causing compound present in wine, acetaldehyde. The issue is, it’s in both types of wine – red and white. And the results didn’t show the same outcome for red wine drinkers.
The other finding in the study is that melanoma in these cases appeared on places not normally exposed to the sun, which means that it’s probably not a case of sun exposure +Â acetaldehyde = melanoma. So that probably rules out the whole “sitting on a patio in the sun with your friends drinking chardonnay” scenario.
Ironically, I pretty much only drink red wine, you know, for my heart health. The only white wine I drink is champagne or sparkling wine and then it’s only for special occasions. Which means that somehow I’ve managed to negate the small measure of protection that red wine is supposed to convey. Sigh…