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Resveratrol — The Great Benefit of Wine?
A bite-size read for your health and waistline
Red wine is healthy? I’ll take it! Any excuse to keep going with my…glass, each night at dinner. This made headlines a few years ago and I remember everyone telling me they’re drinking wine for their health. Yet, as with all attention-grabbing headlines, it’s not the whole story.
The part of wine that created the buzz (no pun intended) is resveratrol. It’s a plant compound found in the skin and seeds of grapes, some berries, and peanuts. It really acts like an antioxidant! It can help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, essentially the root causes of almost all symptoms, illnesses, and diseases.
Studies on resveratrol’s benefits come mostly from research conducted on animals and in test tubes. The research on humans is relatively limited. Either way, it’s interesting! We can see that the benefits of resveratrol focus on the heart. It may help lower blood pressure, specifically systolic blood pressure, which is the amount of pressure exerted on your artery walls each time your heart beats. Resveratrol may also help reduce LDL (bad cholesterol) and increase HDL (the good kind). Other benefits may include improving insulin sensitivity, reducing inflammation and joint pain, as well as protecting cartilage, brain health, and fighting against cancer.
