Love red wine? We've got good news...
After researchers at Canada's University of Alberta found the health benefits of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, are equivalent to those we get from exercise, another study has found consuming red grapes or wine could slow the growth of fat cells.
Science Daily reports a team at Oregon State University exposed human liver and fat cells to extracts of four natural chemicals found in Muscadine grapes, a dark-red variety native to the southeastern United States.
One of these chemicals, ellagic acid, reduced the growth of existing fat cells and the formation of new ones. It also boosted the metabolism of fatty acids in the liver cells - but sadly these findings don't necessarily mean red wine is the solution to losing weight.
"We didn't find, and we didn't expect to, that these compounds would improve body weight," Neil Shay, a biochemist and molecular biologist at OSU told Science Daily.
However, the study highlighted the positive effect red grapes could have on liver function in overweight people. "If we could develop a dietary strategy for reducing the harmful accumulation of fat in the liver, using common foods like grapes, that would be good news," Shay added.
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