Does wine cause cellulite? Polyphenols vs alcohol.

Does alcohol, and specifically red wine, cause cellulite?

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• Red, rosé and white wine and cellulite

• Wine polyphenols, blood vessels and your skin

• Red (or any other) wine does not contain that many polyphenols after all

• Red wine is nice to have in moderation. But still, not good for us, let’s not fool ourselves.

• Bingeing on white / rosé / red wine (or any other alcohol): the royal road to cellulite

• Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts

• Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia

• The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening

Does red wine cause cellulite?

Like dark chocolate, red wine is considered good for your blood vessels and overall health, due to the amounts of polyphenols and also resveratrol / pterostilbene they contain.

These compounds in red wine include phenolic acids, stilbenoids, flavonols, dihydroflavonols, anthocyanins, flavanol monomers (catechins) and flavanol polymers (proanthocyanidins).

This large group of natural phenols can be broadly separated into two categories, flavonoids and non-flavonoids:

• Flavonoids include the anthocyanins and tannins which contribute to the colour and mouthfeel of the wine

• The non-flavonoids include the stilbenoids such as resveratrol and phenolic acids such as benzoic, caffeic and cinnamic acids

(For more technical detail on wine polyphenols check here.)

Wine polyphenols, blood vessels and your skin

Polyphenols are indeed very important for overall health. But they are especially good for blood vessels and the skin, and consequently for cellulite prevention and skin firmness.

Polyphenols are found in relatively high amounts in red and - to a lesser extent - in rosé and white wine.

This led tabloid newspapers and populist “scientists” to claim that alcohol - and, the similarly rich in polyphenols, dark chocolate - are good for you, if consumed in moderation.

Of course, if you going to consume alcohol or sugar, then red wine is better than beer and dark chocolate is better for you than doughnuts.

But per se, red wine/dark chocolate are not great for your skin and blood vessels, due to alcohol content, which can reach up to 15.5% in red wine (likewise, sugar content is a whooping 30% in a 70% dark chocolate).

Red (or any other) wine does not contain that many polyphenols after all

Indeed the negative effect of alcohol itself and the calories it contains trumps the positive effect its polyphenols provide.

This is because red wine is not a realistically rich source to polyphenols to make any positive difference with cellulite.

And I use the word realistically, because drinking 1.12 litres (1.5 bottles) of red wine is not a realistic method to get enough polyphenols to make a difference, either for overall health and or skin / blood vessel health.

For example:

• Red wine contains a typical 0.1% polyphenols per weight, i.e. 1120mg per 1.5 bottle / 1.12 litres

• Blueberries contain 0.56% polyphenols per weight, i.e. 1120mg per 200g punnet

Blueberries are a very realistic source of polyphenols, with a little bit of natural sugar, lots of fibre, water and enzymes and 200g of them will leave you feeling light and refreshed.

To receive the same amount of polyphenols, 1.5 bottle of red wine will leave you very drunk and will fill your liver with a toxin to detoxify (alcohol) and your cellulite cells with more fat in them, after the alcohol is detoxified and concerted into fat.

Red wine is nice to have in moderation. But still, not good for us, let’s not fool ourselves.

Red wine does make you feel good indeed, and I love some good deep dark red wine or good dark chocolate every so often, but I do not fool myself that it is healthy.

I drink it knowing that it is an unhealthy indulgence - and quite bad for skin, blood vessels and cellulite, due to the effect of alcohol and sugar in them, which supersede the effect of the polyphenols in them.

Now, is red wine better than beer or vodka? Sure it is. After all, beer contains a lot of carbs and vodka is pure alcohol, and if you are going to have a treat you should prefer a good red wine instead.

But let’s not fool ourselves that it is “healthy”.

Wine is merely less unhealthy than vodka or beer.

Bingeing on white / rosé / red wine (or any other alcohol): the royal road to cellulite

After clearing the confusion about alcohol vs polyphenols in red wine, let’s make something abundantly clear.

Bingeing on red wine (or any other alcohol), e.g. a bottle on a Saturday night, is much worse than the typical glass of wine every couple of days to “relax and unwind”.

This is due to:

• The shock to the liver and all body tissues caused by excessive amounts of alcohol, dumped in the body by binge drinking

• The sheer amount of fat being dumped in the fat cells (including the hypodermal fat cells of cellulite) after alcohol is eventually metabolised into fat

I have seen clients’ bodies literally being covered in cellulite after a few months of the so-called “hedonistic” lifestyle (basically being drunk every night for the whole summer).

So moderation is the key, always.

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