We are often told of how the NHS is drowning in drink as it seeks to mop up the alcohol-related harm we inflict on ourselves and others.

A key argument for imposing a minimum price was that it would cut hospital admissions in Scotland by 1600 in year one. Others claim that the number of medical conditions now considered "alcohol-related" has trebled since the 1980s. Yet despite this, alcohol-related admissions are falling.

Time to bring in consultant cardiologist, Dr William McCrea. Writing in the Daily Telegraph a few weeks ago, he revealed that he has been prescribing red wine to his patients at the Great Western hospital in Swindon since 2003. To a heart attack sufferer who came round in Dr McCrea's ward, the twice-daily rattle of the drinks trolley would be heartening indeed.

Somehow I can't see it happening in Scotland, yet given the weight of scientific evidence in support of the doctor, it clearly should. The benefits of a couple of drinks go way beyond steadying the nerves and calming the heartbeat of cardiac patients. "I always knew that red wine and oily fish increased good cholesterol levels at the expense of bad cholesterol and this prevented stroke and heart attacks," McCrea explained.

Conversely, he had been struck by how few patients with clogged arteries had drunk any alcohol at all. As the Canadian physician, Sir William Osler, once put it: "A man is only as old as his arteries." McCrea did his research and found that "spirits appeared to be more beneficial than beer, and wine more beneficial than spirits, with red superior to white".

That's because of the antioxidants in the grape skins which provide the colour and flavours like tannins in red wine. As white wine is made from just the juice, the health benefits are less. Of course none of this is new. As early as 1991, CBS told a stunned American TV audience that heart disease was considerably lower among the French despite their full-fat diet thanks to all the red wine they consumed.

Sales of red boomed in the States, though not always for pleasure. It was apparently not uncommon to see restaurant-goers wincing as they downed a small glass, before washing the taste away with Coke. Some reds are much more beneficial than others, however.