The Possible Death Knell For Red Wine Health Claims

It already looked dubious that red wine and the resveratrol therein have any special health benefits. A recent study may now very well have put the last nail into the coffin of those supposed positive effects.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

You may remember that a while ago I wrote an article about the health benefits of red wine, whose consumption was supposed to increase our heart health, improve cardiovascular functions and more.

To recap, in case you didn’t read that brilliant piece of writing of mine: it was reasoned that all those goodies more or less came down to the polyphenol resveratrol, an organic compound found especially often in the skins of red grapes. There, as well as in other plants, it acts as a form of antimicrobial drug, offering protection from bacteria, fungi and other diseases.

Resveratrol – Wine Without The Fun Part

But already when I wrote about it back then it didn’t look too good for you justifying your daily glass of Chateau Migraine with “it’s for my health”.  Now you may better want to fully capitalize on the intellectual and distinguishing merits of wine drinking.

A daring group of researchers at Denmark’s Aarhus University boldly went where no wine lover has gone before and supplemented obese men with 1,500 daily milligrams of a resveratrol supplement and measured what, if any, effect this had on their health compared to a similar group on a placebo. Unfortunately, there was no difference in insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, triglycerides and other fats.

I doubt the Danes will any time soon get an invitation to this conference, but you at least may want to save some money on resveratrol supplements and invest it in a nice bottle of Bordeaux. It probably doesn’t do anything for your health, but looks way more romantic than a pill box when you prepare your next candlelight dinner.

Picture courtesy of the L.C. Nøttaasen.