One of the
most well-known stories about the health benefits of eating
fruit is called the French Paradox – the condition of unexpected
low incidence of cardiovascular disease in French citizens
who regularly eat extraordinary quantities of high-fat foods
and consume red wine. These people technically should have
high rates of cardiovascular disease but seem protected by
the chemicals in wine.
Although we now recognize that high-fat diets are undesirable,
the potential benefits of a diet rich in whole food phytochemicals
are clear when combined with other healthy dietary and lifestyle
practices, such as maintaining a regular exercise program.
Possibly the most publicized phytochemical in red wine is
resveratrol found in the skin and seeds of red and purple
grapes and dark berries like the blueberry. Having the chemical
formula C14H12O3, resveratrol is chemically defined as a stilbene,
viniferin or phytoalexin (a Greek-derived term meaning to
“protect” (alexin) or to “ward off”).
This designation suits the function of resveratrol in the
outer skin of plants as a primary fungicide and antiviral
agent with potent antioxidant properties protecting against
ultraviolet radiation, pests and injury. Resveratrol belongs
to the general class of plant chemicals called phenolics or
polyphenols, named from their composition of carbon, hydrogen
and oxygen atoms in 6-carbon rings.
Benefits of Resveratrol
By consuming blue, red, purple and black-skinned plants rich
in resveratrol, humans may gain these protective benefits.
Early medical research proves this to be true, as resveratrol
has been shown in preliminary research on experimental animals
to:
• Increase blood flow and reduce the extent of brain cell
damage following stroke
• Reduce the activity of brain inflammatory mediators in a
model of Alzheimer’s disease
• Reduce vascular plaque formation in rats given a high-fat
diet
• Improve the rate of healing in skin wounds
• Protect against lipid oxidation in a model of pancreatitis
• Protect against cellular pathology in a model of diabetic
kidney disease
• Protect against liver damage in a model of cholestasis or
bile duct occlusion
• Protect against cartilage deterioration in a model of osteoarthritis
• Stimulate anti-clotting mechanisms in blood
• Suppress appetite and in turn contribute to weight control
or loss
• Enhance sperm production
• Inhibit formation of cataracts
• Inhibit proliferation of the herpes simplex virus
• Prolong the lives of yeast cells, worms, fish and fruit
flies, possibly through mechanisms that affect aging via slowing
the rate of cell death
Anti-Cancer Effect
Resveratrol’s most compelling health effect shown in laboratory
studies is its broad-spectrum anti-cancer activity. The online
database of medical literature for the US National Institutes
of Health, PubMed, cites nearly 500 publications over the
past decade of research on resveratrol as a cancer chemopreventive
nutrient.
Experimental models of breast, prostate, lung, blood, skin,
brain, kidney, bladder, tongue, esophagus and colon cancer
show evidence for beneficial effects of resveratrol. It appears
also to sensitize cells toward cancer therapy agents, improving
the benefit of these drugs. Also, when combined with other
plant-derived phenolics, resveratrol’s anti-cancer actions
seem to be enhanced, showing the potential benefits of antioxidant
synergy from a mixed diet high in colorful fruits and vegetables
rich in phytochemicals.
Resveratrol’s actions to inhibit inflammatory mediators and
the growth of new blood vessels in tumors (called anti-angiogenesis),
plus its ability to accelerate the rate of cancer cell death
(called apoptosis, “eh-po-toe-sis”), are synergistic effects
in anti-cancer activity. In other experiments, resveratrol
inhibited enzymes synthesizing nitro-oxygen radicals like
nitric oxide that may be involved in cancer development.
To summarize, resveratrol acts against mechanisms controlling
the initiation, promotion and progression of tumor cell growth
in laboratory models. It is considered one of the most promising
natural anti-cancer agents.
Fortunately for us, resveratrol can be easily introduced
into the diet by selecting foods like:
o Red grapes and dark grape juice
o Red wines (and even white ones, but with lower resveratrol
levels)
o Blackberries, blueberries, cranberries and lingonberries
(and their juices)
o Pistachios
o Peanuts with skins and peanut butter
Take home message: Eat berries! Drink red wine! And be merry!
Reading
PubMed at http://pubmed.gov; type “resveratrol AND” in the
search space, add the topic of your interest, and click on
Go to view literature.
Linus Pauling Institute, Micronutrient Information Center,
Oregon State University, Corvallis, http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/
Copyright 2006 Berry Health Inc. |
