“Substance in Red Wine, Resveratrol, Found to Keep Hearts Young” (Science Daily):
How, scientists wonder, do the French get away with a clean bill of heart health despite a diet loaded with saturated fats?
The answer to the so-called “French paradox” may be found in red wine. More specifically, it may reside in small doses of resveratrol, a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates, red wine and other foods, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.
What’s new here is the “small doses” finding. Previously, it was thought that you needed to down several buckets of red wine a day to see any heart benefits. The cost to your liver seemed to offset any heart gains. But now it looks like a glass or two of red wine each day will do the trick. As one scientist quoted in the article puts it, “This brings down the dose of resveratrol toward the consumption reality mode.”
And it looks like the benefits go beyond the heart. Low doses of resveratrol apparently give much the same general anti-aging benefits as a restricted calorie diet (a diet with 20-30% fewer calories than the norm).
Let’s see — reduce my food intake by one-fifth or drink a glass of wine every day . . . What to do, what to do . . .
Macy Swain | 08-Jun-08 at 8:59 pm | Permalink
Prompted by your ongoing research reports, I’m slurping some shiraz, but I’m going to try not to be too happy about it, as that may make me dumber.
Tony | 26-Mar-09 at 12:22 am | Permalink
Seems like good therapy to me, a glass of red wine a day.
I enjoy a glass of Merlot in the evening, but actually these days one glass is enough. I don’t need to down the whole bottle, just a taste will suffice, so a bottle lasts me 3 or 4 days. I hope this doesn’t classify me as an old fart…