For decades, scientists have been trying to understand how the French indulge in fatty foods like pates and cheese but have low rates of heart disease.

While too much wine has been linked to cancer and liver disease, rich food is synonymous with heart disease.

Now a team in America has discovered that a compound found in red wine appears to protect the heart from ageing and may do almost as much good as eating a low-calorie diet.

Sadly, it doesn't work quite as well on the waistline. The compound, resveratrol, is found in grapes, pomegranates, red wine and some other foods. Previous research has shown it extends the lifespan of mice fed on a high-fat diet. But no one has understood why.

Now a new study suggests it is because resveratrol interferes with the genes which are switched on and off in our bodies as we age.

In other words it prevents the changes to the heart normally associated with ageing. This slow-down is as good as that achieved by people who eat a lowfat diet.

The latest research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was done only on mice. But the team believe the findings would be equivalent to a middle-aged man drinking a glass of red wine a day.

The team noticed a low-fat diet prevented age-related changes to 90 per cent of the heart genes. In the mice fed resveratrol, it prevented 92 per cent of these changes.

Red wine not only contains antioxidants which may boost health, it has also been found to inhibit the build-up of fat in the arteries that leads to heart disease.

SEARCH RETIREMENT for:

Share... • Got A Story? Get in touch online • Email the news desk directly here!

Next story... Busted, the fake Dambuster hero PROUDLY posing in his RAF blazer, Eric Jephcott looked every inch the Dambusters hero ...

Print This Article

Email To A Friend

Contact Us About Article

Get RSS