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Red wines get their color from the grape skins on which they stand
during the first stages of fermentation. At the same time, they pick up
quercitin, a flavonoid, which may be the reason the French — who
accompany their egg-, butter- and cream-rich meals with bottles of red
wine — have fewer heart attacks than nationalities for which wine is
less important. The death rate from heart disease among the French is 75
deaths per 100,000 as compared to more than twice that for Americans.
Quercitin, University of Wisconsin researchers now believe, may not only
raise blood levels of HDL
("good" cholesterol) but also act as a blood thinner. But
there's a downside, too. In different studies, extracts of green beans,
lettuce, paprika and rhubarb (all high in quercitin) have caused
mutations, even cancer in lab rats. Onions, too, are loaded with
quercitin, and cattle grazing fields overrun with wild onions have
developed anemia; some have died. Other researchers believe that what's
been dubbed the French paradox, the low incidence of heart disease among
a people whose diet is notoriously high in FAT
and cholesterol, is due to a powerful ANTIOXIDANT
in red table wine called resveratrol. |
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