White Wine May Come With a Higher Skin Cancer Risk Than Red Wine

A new meta-analysis comparing the cancer risks of red and white wine has come to mixed conclusions.

Ultimately, the analysis of previous observational studies found no significant differences between the risks posed by either type of wine.

However, when focusing on cohort studies that follow participants over a long period of time, the researchers found that white wine was associated with a 22% increased risk of skin cancer when compared to red.

The results were published in Nutrients.

Red or white?

Given its levels of resveratrol – a polyphenol known for its anti-inflammatory properties – red wine is, anecdotally at least, often considered the healthier beverage over white wine.

To probe this assumption, researchers from the Brown University School of Public Health took a second look at 42 pre-existing observational studies (20 cohort studies, 22 case-control) that investigated the effects of wine consumption on cancer risk.

Several cancer types were covered by the studies, including skin (six studies), prostate (six), female breast (five) and brain (two). Wine consumption in all studies was self-reported by participants.

Across all cancer types, the researchers observed that every additional 10 g of estimated ethanol (about one glass) from red wine consumed per day was associated with a 5% increase in overall cancer risk. This association, however, was disappeared when case-control studied were excluded.

While the meta-analysis found no overall increased risk of cancer from red or white wine consumption, a sub-analysis found that white wine was associated with a 22% increased risk of skin cancer when compared to red.

“Our analysis included as many published epidemiological studies as possible that separately explored the relationship between red and white wine consumption and cancer risk,” Dr. Eunyoung Cho, an associate professor of epidemiology and of dermatology at Brown University, said in a statement.

“The results revealed no significant difference in cancer risk between red and white wine overall. However, we did observe a distinction when it came to skin cancer risk. Specifically, the consumption of white wine, but not red wine, was associated with an increased risk of skin cancer.”

Cho and her colleagues posit that wine consumption could be linked to skin cancer-related activities, such as tanning without sun protection, but can’t say for sure why white wine, and not red wine, would have a stronger cancer link.

Despite this finding, the researchers concluded that “drinking red wine may not be any better than drinking white wine in terms of cancer risk.”

In the literature

The consensus around alcohol’s potential cancer risks has swung back and forth over the years.

Many older studies claimed that low-to-moderate levels of any alcohol consumption – surprisingly – may achieve cardiac benefits. One study published in 1997, for instance, found that men and women who drank 1 or 2 drinks per day had 30–40% lower total cardiovascular disease mortality than non-drinkers.

In many cases, however, these older studies would label participants who had given up alcohol due to ill health as drinkers “who consumed less than weekly”. By comparing such “drinkers” to younger, healthier people who drank more regularly, many of these prior papers came to the erroneous conclusion that moderate drinking has its health perks.

After discounting these poorer studies and focusing only on thorough research, a recent review found no evidence that light-to-moderate drinkers lived longer.

The purported benefits of resveratrol – red wine’s key polyphenol – have also come under recent scrutiny.

Many studies that came to positive conclusions about resveratrol involved supplements of the compound that would have contained a much higher dose than one would typically find in a glass of merlot.

And according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the negative effects of alcohol – increased risk of cancer, diabetes, etc – outweigh any benefits the beverage could offer.

“There are no studies that would demonstrate that the potential beneficial effects of light and moderate drinking on cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes outweigh the cancer risk associated with these same levels of alcohol consumption for individual consumers,” the WHO stated in 2023.

Reference: Lim RK, Rhee J, Hoang M, et al. Consumption of red versus white wine and cancer risk: A meta-analysis of observational studies. Nutrients. 2025. doi: 10.3390/nu17030534