Life Extending Chemical Is Found In Certain Red Wine

Squiffy writes "Yahoo is running a story from the New York Times about an interesting new find in the study of aging. It is thought that Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, might explain why "the French live as long as anyone else despite eating fatty foods deemed threatening to the heart." Resveratrol's exact effect in humans is not yet certain, but it has been shown to extend lifespan in yeast and fruit flies, and humans "have counterpart genes that are assumed to work in a similar way." Some of the scientists involved in the study have even started with their "red wine a day". This raises the question, if a red wine a day keeps the doctor away, and you are a doctor, what happens when you start your daily regimen? Does it just keep other doctors away? Do you explode? Anyway, maybe it's time to stock up on the Pinot Noir."

Comments

Is it the wine or the grape?

[samjam]

I read this type of thing a lot; often though it is the grape that helps whether fermented or not, not the "wine" part.

I suppose its what you get when you have an industry based on selling products made from processed ingredients, they present the product as being beneficial not the ingredient.

Perhaps nothing very wrong in this, but slashdotters should at least be interested in where the real benefit lies and who benefits from the lies.

Sam

Link to NY Times article..

[glassesmonkey]

Here's the NYTimes (NO reg req) links:
Life-Extending Chemical Is Found in Certain Red Wines &
Study Spurs Hope of Finding Way to Increase Human Life &
Toronto Star version

Coincidentally, in July the FDA announced that peanuts significantly lower risk of heart disease. From the article:

"Peanuts also contain bioactive components such as resveratrol (the substance also found in red wine), beta sitosterol, flavonoids, and antioxidants, the benefits of which nutrition scientists are only beginning to discover.

the link

[TheRoss]

why didn't the writeup link to the actual story?

In this case Resveratrol is in the grape

[leonbrooks]

See for example this University of Illinois page on the topic.

The parent page has links to a fair few interesting snippets of information on food, most of which y'all cola-guzzling caffeine-addicted drunkards don't want to know. (-:

Take the Google shortcut and read about:

• Alcholo and Coronary Heart Disease
  
• How to spot Alcohol abuse, depression and potential suicides
  
• The controversy over labelling wine as "healthy"
  
• How mortality [death rates] from all causes increases with alcohol consumption
  
• How to use Lecithin to moderate liver damage from alcohol
  
• and so on...

Germane in recent days are such gems as "preparing food suring a power failure" (linked from this health articles index).

UK Hospital

[belroth]

This doesn't come as a big surprise in Europe.
At least one UK hospital is is giving heart attack patients wine. I try and have two glasses a day with my evening meal. It's a tough life having a healthy diet - wine, smoked salmon (any oily fish really), fresh fruit and home made bread. I don't know how I cope.