More evidence that resveratrol is not the same as wine (and may be worse)

It has become common to think of the antioxidant molecule resveratrol as the main beneficial ingredient in wine, but a new study sheds light on how resveratrol without the other components of wine might actually be a bad thing. Sure, resveratrol is a miracle molecule, providing a plausible explanation for many of the health benefits of moderate drinking: lower odds of diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, even longer life by activation of longevity genes. I leaned heavily on these findings in the book. But what I didn’t anticipate was that resveratrol would become such a hugely popular supplement, and in many people’s minds it became a proxy for wine. If a study showed some failing of resveratrol in a laboratory study, it was put out as a denunciation of healthy drinking. Or when it showed some positive effect in mice, it was hailed as proof that resveratrol had all the benefits of wine – without the alcohol. Both are oversimplifications.

Resveratrol works best when combined with other wine antioxidants

The first thorn in the roses is that in wine, resveratrol occurs in amounts usually much lower than those used in laboratory studies. Another is that in some studies it exhibits a phenomenon called hormesis, which means that different-and sometimes opposite-effects occur at different doses.  Consider also that resveratrol does not occur in isolation, but in combination with a range of antioxidant molecules called Wine-Derived Polyphenols (WDP). This latest study looked at the possibility that these are interrelated factors, by evaluating the antioxidant properties of resveratrol with and without WDP’s. The experiment used cells in culture that were subjected to ultraviolet light (in order to cause oxidative stress), with resveratrol added at varying doses with and without WDP’s.  They found that resveratrol had either pro-oxidant or anti-oxidant effects depending on dosage (confirming hormesis), but when WDP’s were added there was a synergistic antioxidant effect at all doses.

Whole wine better than resveratrol alone

The authors of this study concluded that resveratrol requires wine-derived polyphenols for optimum antioxidant efficiency, which implies that whole wine is a better choice than resveratrol supplements alone. The antioxidant properties of resveratrol are of course only a limited part of their repertoire, but given a choice I’ll go with the science on this one. To your health!