Are Red Wine And Chocolate Not So Healthy After All? - Jennie Viratham Poonsawat

By Jennie Viratham Poonsawat
From Are Red Wine And Chocolate Not So Healthy After All? by Alice G. Walton

Many people might think that chocolate and red wine are bad for their health. Actually, they are beneficial for health. A recent study shows that the antioxidant "resveratrol" which can be found in both red wine and chocolate. This antioxidant can help to reduce inflammation and prolong the lifespan. Other researches, including the current study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, haven’t found many effects at all in people. But that doesn’t mean there is no evidence to support the fact that red wine and chocolate contain healthy nutrients. Moreover, the researchers looked at urine samples of 783 people living in the Chianti region of Italy and measured levels of resveratrol metabolites. They tracked which participant’s deaths over the course of nine years, and what causes the deaths. They unexpectedly discovered   that there were no links between resveratrol levels and the risk of death. Also, resveratrol does not cause inflammation and heart disease or cancer as well. 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,” said study author Richard D. Semba of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “The thinking was that certain foods are good for you because they contain resveratrol. We didn’t find that at all.”  But part of the issue may come down to how much to consume resveratrol. “The levels of Resveratrol in the diet are negligible compared to the levels shown to work in mice and humans,” Harvard University researcher David Sinclair told the LA Times. Sinclair is one of the leading resveratrol researchers in the U.S. Many people have emphasized that  it would be virtually impossible to get high enough levels in the diet as are used in research studies. However, there’s something responsible for  the “French Paradox,” referring to the fact that French people often consume diets with high saturated fat and cholesterol, but have unusually low levels of heart disease. Researchers had stated that resveratrol might be the reason for this fact, since it can be found in foods like grapes, berries, peanuts, chocolate, and red wine.

Red  wine is like a part of French culture while for Belgium is chocolate. The facts about both food being healthy or not  has been a big issue for many years because red wine is considered alcohol drink or an intoxication and chocolate is one factor of diabetes. However, chocolate and red wine contain beneficial ingredients and nutrients as well, actually, eating dark chocolate can reduce cholesterol and fats. Moreover, we can see that in France where a large number of people drink red  wine on a daily basis, people tend to have longer lifespan that people in other countries. After reading this article, I learn new facts about both chocolate and red  wine about how they are healthy for consumers if people know how much to drink or eat in order to have healthy life and longer lifespan. This article might also encourage people to drink red wine but in a good amount and eat good chocolate like dark chocolate that has 90 percents of  cacao.  

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/05/12/new-study-questions-benefit-of-chocolate-and-red-wine-antioxidant/