Red wine
may not be as good for you as hoped, say scientists who have studied the
drink's ingredient that is purported to confer good health. The team
tracked the health of nearly 800 villagers from the Chianti region of Italy to
see if their local tipple had any discernible impact. They
found no proof that the wine ingredient resveratrol stops heart disease or
prolongs life. Experts
say more research is needed to get a definitive answer.
Many studies have sought to explain why there is a
low incidence of heart disease in France, despite many of its inhabitants
eating a high-fat diet. Some put
it down to moderate drinking of red wine.Studies
have shown that consumption of red wine, dark chocolate and berries reduces
inflammation, leading researchers to speculate that their common ingredient,
resveratrol, explains why.
But Prof
Richard Semba, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and
colleagues found no evidence for this. They
chose two small towns in Tuscany as their test ground, and 783 elderly people
who were living there agreed to take part in their investigation.The volunteers gave details about their daily diets
as well as urine samples for measurement of their resveratrol intake. During
the nine years of the study, 268 of the men and women died, 174 developed heart
disease and 34 got cancer. But
urinary resveratrol was not linked with death risk, heart disease risk or
cancer risk. Nor was
it associated with any markers of inflammation in the blood, the researchers
report in JAMA Internal Medicine. Prof
Semba said: "The thinking was that certain foods are good for you because
they contain resveratrol. We didn't find that at all.
"The
story of resveratrol turns out to be another case where you get a lot of hype
about health benefits that doesn't stand the test of time." He says
any benefits of drinking wine or eating dark chocolate or berries, if they are
there, must come from other shared ingredients. And it's not clear how much you
might need to eat or drink. "These
are complex foods, and all we really know from our study is that the benefits
are probably not due to resveratrol."
Maureen
Talbot, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "The
results of this study, while interesting, will not change the dietary advice we
provide. People should continue to eat plenty of fruit, veg and wholegrains. "We
recognise the need to learn more about the action of resveratrol though, so are
funding research into its reported disease-combating properties and how it
affects the heart and circulatory system. "This
research is vital as it could form the basis of future medicines." Red wine
contains resveratrol, but the amount varies with grape variety
