No matter which answer you choose you're right and you're wrong. As we've said there is a yin and a yang about wine, food and almost everything else. It all depends on perspective. Wine in moderation is good for you, but what is moderation. Again, that all depends on perspective. In America moderation means one glass for women, and one to two glasses for men, but what if you're a large woman or a small man? The "sensible limits" in the European Union are two to three glasses of red wine per day for women and three to four glasses for men. So what if you're an American in Europe ?

Many scientific studies have proven that red wines contain several antioxidants beneficial to good health. Antioxidants help to prevent the oxidation whereby reactive particles known as "free radicals" cause damage to healthy cells. Drinking one to two glasses of wine daily, the antioxidants in red wine offer some protection against heart disease.

Resveratrol, which is found in red wine, has blood-thinning properties so it can limit the formation of blood clots. If blood clots form and become lodged in the smaller vessels of the heart or brain, oxygen can be prevented from reaching these vital organs causing ischemia. A heart attack is acute ischemia in the heart. In the brain it is a stroke.

The resveratrol in red wine minimizes the DNA mutations that lead to cancer and helps to block the formation of new blood vessels that "feed" tumors thereby preventing metastasis. . Laboratory studies have shown that resveratrol can cause certain cancer cells to self-destruct, or undergo apoptosis—an event where cells disintegrate and become particles that are then consumed by other cells.

Science exposes another yin and yang. Small daily amounts of resveratrol have positive health benefits. There is some evidence that large amounts may have adverse effects. Socrates concurs: “wine in moderation to induce a more sportive mood.” However, “plants when they are drenched with too much water become weak and fall over; so too should men avoid the excesses of wine which cause the bodies and minds to reel, making speech much less sensible,” and driving dangerous, we might add.

So Plato is only partially right: "Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the Gods to man."