If you’re looking for validation for your evening glass of red, we’ve found it. A new study by the King’s College London has discovered that red wine is good for the gut, with red wine drinkers boasting a significantly higher diversity of friendly gut bacteria than those who drank white wine, cider or beer.

The diversity of bugs increased the more red wine a person consumed, with no heavy drinkers recorded in the study.

Dr Caroline Le Roy, who led the study, said: “While we have long known of the unexplained benefits of red wine on heart health, this study shows that moderate red wine consumption is associated with greater diversity and a healthier gut microbiota that partly explain its long-debated beneficial effects on health.”

The benefits are believed to boil down to polyphenols, which are antioxidant-rich micronutrients found in the skin of grapes. Also present in chocolate, blueberries and hazelnuts, polyphenols are believed to act as fuel for gut bacteria, boosting the diversity of friendly bugs.

Dr Le Roy added: “If you must choose one alcoholic drink today, red wine is the one to pick as it seems to potentially exert a beneficial effect on you and your gut microbes, which in turn may also help weight and risk of heart disease.”

Scientists are increasingly realising the importance of gut microbiota and its link to other aspects of our general health. An imbalance of gut bacteria is believed to play a role in several illnesses, from mental health conditions to Irritable Bowel Syndrome, heart disease, obesity and cognitive disorders like dementia.

Despite the positive findings, experts warn drinkers not to exceed recommended safe alcohol limits, which translates to one small glass a day. The data showed that a beneficial effect was possible even with as little as one glass of wine a fortnight.