Red Wine, Chocolate Don't Benefit the Heart After All

Red wine and chocolate may not be good for the heart after all. Researchers have found that resveratrol—the antioxidant found in grapes, red wine, dark chocolate, and some berries—does not reduce the risk of heart disease or cancer.

In a prospective cohort study, researchers tracked 783 community-dwelling men and women 65 years or older from 1998 to 2009 in 2 villages in the Chianti area of Italy where supplement use is uncommon and consumption of red wine was high. The participants were not on a prescribed diet.
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Researchers used advanced mass spectrometry to analyze 24 hours of urine samples for metabolites of resveratrol.

After 9 years of follow-up, 34.3% of participants died, 27.2% reported cardiovascular disease, and 4.6% reported new cases of cancer.

After accounting for age and gender, the people with the highest concentration of resveratrol metabolites were no less likely to have died of any other cause than those with no resveratrol. Furthermore, the concentration of resveratrol was not associated with inflammatory markers, cardiovascular disease, or cancer rates.

“The story of resveratrol turns out to be another case where you get a lot of hype about health benefits that doesn’t stand the test of time,” says Richard D. Semba, MD, M.P.H., a professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and lead author. “The thinking was that certain foods are good for you because they contain resveratrol. We didn’t find that at all.”

–Pooja Shah

Reference:

Semba R, Ferrucci L, Bartali B, et al. Resveratrol and mortality in older adults. 2014 May 12 [epub ahead of print]. http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1868537. Accessed May 13, 2014.

John Hopkins Medicine. Diets rich in antioxidant resveratrol fail to reduce deaths, heart disease, or cancer [press release]. 2014 May 12. www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/diets_rich_in_antioxidant_resveratrol_fail_to_reduce_deaths_heart_disease_or_cancer. Accessed May 13, 2014.