With tongue in cheek my father has for many years referred to his daily red wine as "heart medicine."  

Because I am a red wine drinker I've always chosen to believe that red wine possesses positive health benefits - that the anti-oxidents and polyphenols in the skins are secretly doing good chemical works in my body, even if they are staining my teeth! 

A recently published article in the Journal of Women's Health points to evidence that moderate red wine consumption could possibly lower the risk of breast cancer .  Alcohol consumption on the whole is considered to increase the risk of breast cancer but the study indicated that resveratrol in red wine slows the growth of breast cancer cells. 

Many drugs used to treat/manage breast cancer are aromatase inhibitors (AIs) aimed at blocking the effects of estrogen.  These AI's occur naturally in grapes, but only in red wine as it has resveretrol from the skins (not in white wine since it does not leach out these compounds in the finished wine).   Researchers found that cells treated with resveretrol did not proliferate as quickly.  Check out an article in the Huffington Post that explains clearly the impact of estrogens and resveretrol on cancer cells.

On the con side of the argument there's another thorough article in The Atlantic Monthly (online) by Dr. Elaine Schattner.  She's not as bullish on the findings and argues that there are too many related factors that could influence the actual risk.  Her arguments make sense.

I am going to continue believing that a daily dose of red wine is somehow good for me and stick with staining my teeth with Pinots, Tempranillos and Grenache wines. 

The question is whether the discussion in these articles encourages Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc drinkers to occasionally have something more tannic and red in order to glean the resveretrol benefits of red wine.

Is it worth expanding your palate to red for the health benefits?  Yes?  No?