Sulfites and Wine

QUESTION: In 1986, I did a little college research paper on the potential connection between breast cancer and the sulfites found in wine. The articles I used also mentioned the sugar and alcohol factors as possible contributors. Basically, it was a matter of honing in on surveys given to breast cancer victims who, it turned out, stated that they were regular consumers of commercially produced wine. Obviously, wine producers would not be happy to hear such a thing — and a pesticide and/or fertilizer factor might have even been involved. I don't remember. But I remember being quite surprised to find that regular (not abusive) consumption of alcohol — particularly wine — was a consistently common factor among the many hundreds of breast cancer survivors surveyed. Have you ever heard of any research done on this? Is this type of research discouraged, when it makes FDA-approved producers look like "bad guys"? Wouldn't addressing these possibilities ultimately favor their own interests, competition-wise (remember the "No MSG," "no saccharine," "No phosphates" labels that made those companies look like responsible, caring marketers)? Anyway, what do you folks know about it, or think about it?

ANSWER: The Harvard Nurses Health Study showed that in women beyond menopause, there is an increased risk of breast cancer associated with drinking more than five drinks per week. That study wasn't restricted to wine use — it could also be beer or hard liquor. Only some of those products contain sulfites, and the amount found in each product also varies (red wine, for example, tends to have more than white wine). The fermentation process that leads to the production of alcohol uses up most of the sugar by the time it's bottled.

Your excellent questions are hard to study consistently given the large variety of alcohol products used, in various amounts and combinations, that change over the years that each woman uses them and the presence of sulfites in other foods you may eat (dried fruits, bacon). To fully understand the influence of alcohol and its ingredients on breast cancer risk, you also need to look at the other factors that are influenced by alcohol use: For example, heavy drinkers are more likely to smoke and eat an unbalanced diet. Plus, even if there were a well-designed study, there are practical limitations that affect the strength of the study's conclusion. Would you be able to record the type and amount of every alcohol beverage you consume day after day, year after year — particularly after having a few drinks? Even though we don't have the answers to these questions now, it's still important to keep asking the questions and to have a high level of awareness about the food and fluids that we take in — as well as the air that we breathe.

—Marisa Weiss, M.D.