Even more reasons to drink red wine and eat red grapes. The compound resveratrol found in the skins of red grapes and hence red wine has been suggested to have even more health benefits.

Resveratrol has been suggested to have a wide range of health benefits in mice. How many of these results extend to humans will be interesting to see. However, the French Paradox suggests that perhaps resveratrol may have health benefits.

The French Paradox is that France has quite a low level of cardiovascular disease., relative to other countries in western Europe. One suggestion has been that the regular consumption of red wine was the explanation.

Research then suggested that humans did not consume enough resveratrol in wine or grapes to have an effect. Early research suggested that very large quantities of resveratrol needed to be consumed for any effect. This led to flood of supplements, most which contained Japanese knotweed, another source. (Note: Consumer Labs tested a large range of brands and found that the resveratrol content ranged from high to almost non-existent, and that price had no relationship to the content. Buyer beware.)

Recent research in mice, which previously had shown that only very high levels were effective, has shown that lower amounts improved health. Improvements were reduced cataract formation, better bone health, and improved balance and coordination. Further there was less inflammation in hearts, a sign of heart disease, in those mice whose diets included resveratrol. Let’s hope that studies in humans find the same thing!

Did you know that frozen red grapes make a great snack? Buy red grapes when they are cheap. After washing and letting dry, pull the grapes off the stems. Throw them in a Ziploc style bag and put them in the freezer. Just remove as many as you want for a snack. The freezing gives them a subtle change in taste.

photo credit: Zesmerelda

[tags]resveratrol, red wine, red grapes, French paradox[/tags]