Red wine; is resveratrol really healthy?

As we all know “French Paradox” is no more a riddle. Although the French eat more fatty foods than the Americans and the others they have lower incidence of coronary heart diseases. Lot of research has been done on this subject and the answer to this puzzle is resveratrol, polyphenol which limits the bad effects of fatty foods and even smoking. Resveratrol is a powerful antioxidant present in the red wine. The French consume regularly wine mixed with drinking water.

Red wine contains a complex mixture of bioactive plant-chemicals and they include:

• Resveratrol, the stilbene polyphenol
• Anthacyanins
• Phenolic acids
• Flavonols
• Monomeric and polymeric flavan-3-ols

Resveratrol is the most studied substance and it and some of the above plant-chemicals appear to have health benefits. It is a good antioxidant.

The health benefits of resveratrol and other plant-chemicals include:

• To prevent and treat cancer
• To protect the heart from cardiovascular diseases
• To prevent stroke
• To prevent diabetes
• To prevent inflammation
• To prevent neurodegenerative disorders
• Has antiviral effects
• May help to reduce weight in obese persons

If you have a glass of red wine the alcohol present can enlarge the blood vessels and this helps heart’s health by decreasing the blood pressure. But if you drink more the blood vessels are narrowed and the heart has to pump hard that results the increase of blood pressure.

Pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers must avoid alcohol including red wine. Dry alcoholics may go for the resveratrol supplements. It is better to consult your doctor before taking the supplement.

The French Paradox

Mostly when we talk about red wine we also talk about the French paradox. It was not well understood for a long time.

It is cleared exactly now. The French eat the fattiest foods in the world with lot of saturated fats and cholesterol, but have lesser heart attack than the others who consume much less cholesterol.

The French drink very rarely water alone but mix it always with red wine, half and half and drink. Here it is not the role played by alcohol but the chemical which gives the red colour to red wine, resveratrol, which reduces the amount of cholesterol in the blood. Moreover alcohol in small quantity helps to widen the arteries and thus heart does not need to work hard. Small quantity means, one glass wine added to one more glass of water. Be careful, only because of resveratrol and other polyphenols as antioxidants, red wine has this quality.

Case Study

More than 20 years ago I had the cholesterol value of 249 mg and my doctor told that I have to try to reduce this cholesterol. I had no interest to change my food habit as I was travelling lot from on congress to other. So I have decided to try with red wine.

My choice was a dry, red French wine. The alcohol content was 12.5 vol% and I drank everyday in the evening 180 ml of that. After 14 days my cholesterol value was 180 mg. This was a test by a clinical toxicologist who had all the facilities to test. I had no patience, that why 180 ml.

For an average person the amount should be 100 ml which he could take in the evening. It should be taken like a medicine.

Caution – Alcohol is habit forming and makes you an addict. Dry alcoholics must avoid alcohol completely