So You want to Live Longer
Resveratrol has become a regular supplement for many people over the past few years. It offers protection against heart disease and aging and other related related diseases. It can also offer an excuse to drink more red wine! Resveratrol supplements have been tagged as anti-aging. Recent research and studies have weeded out some of the hype. What remains are less spectacular but valid health benefits.
Why the great Interest
Resveratrol’s claim to fame was the result of trying to solve the “French Paradox”. The rich high fat French cuisine accompanied by low heart disease and obesity rates among the French just didn’t make sense. After isolating resveratrol from red wine, this assumption was made: The French consumed enough wine containing resveratrol to offer immunity from heart disease despite their high fat diets.
Subsequent studies have shown that the amount of resveratrol from red wine consumption may not be enough to explain the “French Paradox”. But there is still nutritional merit in resveratrol along with the other foods containing it.
Those other foods include Japanese Knotweed root for teas, muscadine grapes (seeds and skins), grape juice, cocoa and dark chocolate, peanuts, blueberries, cranberries and red carrots. Their resveratrol content levels from highest to lowest are pretty much in the order listed.
Resveratrol Dosage
Even if you eat all the above foods on a regular basis you probably won’t get enough resveratrol to dramatically impact your health to the level of earlier hype on inhibiting cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. These foods do contain other beneficial phytonutrients and antioxidants, which do offer positive synergistic effects with resveratrol to slow aging issues.
But perhaps concentrated resveratrol supplements can meet those earlier expectations. Many of the resveratrol supplements are extracted and concentrated from the Japanese Knotweed plant and grapes. So at least they are mostly food based supplements. It seems home made tinctures made from bulk Knotweed roots would be cost effective, but for now most of the Knotweed is contracted out to supplement companies. What’s left goes for top dollar, unless you have it in your back garden.
The Japanese and Chinese have benefited from resveratrol for centuries by using Knotweed for teas. But it wasn’t until the 1980s that the active phytonutrient resveratrol was isolated. Resveratrol is a chemical that spermatophyte (seed producing) plants create to ward off attacking fungi and bacteria. So it’s ironically logical that plants from regions with the most fungi and bacteria exposure have the highest concentrations of resveratrol! Where the plants are grown is almost as important as the type of plant grown.
This may also highlight the eminence of organic. If synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides are used to keep the plants from being attacked by fungi and bacteria, those plants probably produce less resveratrol. But the toxic poisons do get passed on to you. Peanuts, high in resveratrol, are among the most heavily sprayed plants. So it’s especially important to go organic with peanuts and peanut butter.