At Harvard Medical School, an experiment involving red wine has yielded some very interesting results. The study found that the effects of a poor, high-calories diet were offset by a chemical that is naturally found in red wine, resveratrol, which comes from the skin of grapes. On top of that, it seemed to help extend the lifespan in general.
The study was only conducted on mice, not people. The mice were fed a diet in which 60% of the calories came from fat. All the mice gained weight, but the ones that were also given a "a large daily dose of resveratrol" had " all the pleasures of gluttony but paid none of the price" and lived just as well, physically and mentally, as the mice on healthy diets did.
The only problem is not that the study was conducted on mice, but the dose of resveratrol that they were given. One litre of red wine contains 1.5 to 3 milligrams of resveratrol. "A 150-pound person would need to drink from 1,500 to 3,000 bottles of red wine a day" to get the same dose as the mice, 24-mg per kg of body weight. Smaller amounts would have a positive, but correspondingly weaker, effect, but since the results are no confirmed on humans yet, limiting yourself to an extra glass of wine is probably still a better idea than having an extra bottle.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-13-2006 @ 1:17AM
Winser said...
The active ingredient concentrated in the skin of the grapes is resveratrol, an antioxidant produced by the grapevine to combat fungus. Resveratrol is found in red wine, not white because red wine is made by fermenting the whole grape including the skin (which gives color as well). Researchers have found that a concentration higher than 10 micromoles/liter is unusually high, yet some Oregon Pinot noirs have been found to contain 18-28 and higher micromoles, probably because the damp climate promotes fungus.
A couple of glasses of Oregon Pinot noir a day may or may not give you a long life, but it will be a pleasant one.
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