In Health Benefits of Red Wine, I have mentioned resveratrol, an antioxidant found in the skin of grapes. Previous studies found that pinot noir wines are high in other antioxidants called flavonoids, which are known free-radical fighters.

But when it comes to red wine, resveratrol seems to be an undisputed champ of all other antioxidants, at least in animal models.

Imagine if you could eat at McDonald’s every day and not worry about negative health effects of obesity. Impossible? As the saying goes, “nothing is impossible, it just takes longer” – and resveratrol could soon make this a reality, maybe.

The study by the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging shows that heavy doses of the red wine ingredient, resveratrol, lowers the rate of diabetes, liver problems and other fat-related ill effects in obese mice. [...]

The 55 resveratrol-treated obese mice were on a high-calorie diet — what one scientist called a “McDonald’s diet.” Not only were they about as healthy as normal mice, they were also as agile and active on exercise equipment as their lean cousins, demonstrating a normal quality of life that was unexpected for such obese creatures. [...]

The scientists involved in this study are very excited about these findings, and predictably, a pharmaceutical company is already working to develop a resveratrol pill.

While resveratrol supplements have been available for years, these promising results have not been duplicated in human trials, so the researchers do not officially recommend taking resveratrol in a supplement form.

However, one scientist “has put his elderly parents” on red wine extract supplements, and another admitted to taking resveratrol supplements.

Would you eat at McDonald’s every day if you could stay healthy regardless of your diet?