Wine enthusiasts everywhere should rejoice over a new study recently published in the journal Clinical Nutrition.1 Spanish researchers investigated the effects of red wine intake on a high-cholesterol diet. The researchers fed lab rats a cholesterol-enriched diet consisting of 1.65% cholesterol for 4 weeks. They then fed the rats the same diet along with red wine, equivalent to 400ml per 70kg per day, for an additional 4 weeks. Throughout the study, the researchers monitored the rats' total cholesterol and lipid peroxidation products in the brain, kidneys and red blood cells. The researchers found that these indicators "significantly decreased," while glutathione content and antioxidant enzyme activities increased once the rats where given the red wine. (Glutathione is a tripeptide amino acid that acts as an antioxidant and protects cells from oxidative stress.) There was also a significant decrease in urinary excretion of urea, creatinine and albumin (a group of proteins). Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that red wine may protect the brain and kidneys against oxidative stress and high blood cholesterol.
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1. Montilla, P., I. Espejo, et al. (2006). "Protective effect of red wine on oxidative stress and antioxidant enzyme activities in the brain and kidney induced by feeding high cholesterol in rats." Clin Nutr 25(1): 146-53.
