Can Red Wine Help Prevent Obesity ?

December 5, 2006 By Mark

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Research done at the Harvard Medical School, in conjunction with the National Institute of ageing, have found that a substance contained within red wine called resveratrol, changes the negative effects of eating a diet high in calories.

This particular compound is found within grapes, what was found to be puzzling was that people in France can eat a high-fat diet, and still have less heart problems. The researchers gave mice more calories which came from fat 60 percent to be precise, as time went on due to their high fat diet they developed enlarged livers, plus diabetes as well. Another test group was observed to see what the effect would be when given the resveratrol instead, these mice were also fed a high-fat diet as were the others, it didn’t actually stop them from putting on weight, but it did stop their glucose and insulin levels getting high, and also their livers remained normal, also findings were the mice tended to live longer.

As with everything the scientists do say that it is early days as regards these findings but also went on to say that it is also a quite exciting finding nonetheless, people have been saying for a long time about the health benefits of wine, in moderation of course as is the case with everything.

Here is what the scientists say:

”It’s a pretty exciting area, but these are early days,” said Dr. Ronald Kahn, president of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Information about resveratrol’s effects on human metabolism should be available a year or so, Dr. Kahn said, adding, ”Have another glass of pinot noir — that’s as far as I’d take it right now.”

Via http://query.nytimes.com