If you stay away from wine with dinner because you’re worried that it may cause indigestion symptoms, you may have been doing so unnecessarily. Though it may inhibit your diet wellness slightly by slowing down your digestion, according to a small Swiss study, you don’t need to fear your wellbeing will suffer heartburn, belching or feelings of bloating.
Researchers from the University Hospital of Zurich investigated 20 volunteers, 14 of the men, who ate 200g of the popular Swiss dish Cheese Fondue, alongside of which they drank either 300ml of white wine or black tea. The investigators wanted to examine the effects of alcohol on the digestive system when calorie-laden meals are eaten, and after the participants had eaten, they drank either 20ml of schnapps or 20ml of water.
The results were that the group who drank alcohol with their fondue had much slower digestion, but that the alcohol did not contribute to an increase in indigestion problems, and made participants feel fuller for a longer period of time. According to lead researcher Dr Mark Fox, who is now at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, ‘The effect of alcohol is to relax the stomach,’ which ‘in turn reduces the force that drives the meal out of the stomach’. Thus taking alcohol may make you feel more comfortable in the short term; however you will likely feel fuller for longer. Indeed patients that took both wine and schnapps reported exactly this.’
According to Fox, ‘The more you drink the worse this will be. The main problem, especially in those prone to heartburn, is likely to be fullness and reflux at night since the stomach remains full for so long.’ However, the study’s authors concluded that any healthy person, whether they are a native to Switzerland or a tourist, ‘should be reassured that they can continue to enjoy this traditional meal with the beverage of their choice without undue concern about postprandial digestive discomfort’ and Fox suggests that ‘There is no reason to believe that the effects of alcohol on digestion are limited to fondue’ and the results of the study ‘can be generalised to address the wider issue of alcohol’s effects on digestion and digestive comfort after any large, rich meal of the kind we all enjoy over the festive season’.
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