DeVine Super Food

The Health Benefits of the Mighty Grape

Grapes are an amazing powerhouse of nutrients that not only benefit our health, but taste great also. The following is just a few medicinal uses on this amazing fruit, taken from actual medical journals.

Beat Alzheimer's Disease

Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, may be prove to be a potent weapon in the battle against Alzheimer's. (17)

Fights Amyloid-Beta Peptides

A study has shown that it lowers levels of the amyloid-beta peptides, which are responsible for the plaques leading to Alzheimer's disease. (17)

Scientists administered resveratrol to cells that produce human amyloid-beta; they found that levels of amyloid-beta in the treated cells dropped significantly. (18)

Further Research Needed

It is uncertain, however, if simply eating a resveratrol-rich diet will have the same effect; follow-up research is therefore being conducted to identify the molecular mechanisms that resveratrol triggers to fight Alzheimer's. The compound may act by stimulating the proteasome, a multi-protein complex that can digest other proteins.

Could Fight Other Diseases

Resveratrol may also be effective in fighting other human amyloid-related diseases such as Huntington's, Parkinson's and prion diseases. It can, for example, protect neurons against amyloid-like polyglutamines, which accompany Huntington's disease. (19)

Grapes Reduce Prostate Cancer

Men who drink one glass a wine a day are likely to reduce their risk of the most aggressive forms of prostate cancer by 50 percent, according to a cancer research study. The cancer-fighting compound, resveratrol, is found in the red grapes that are used to make red wine. Resveratrol is also found in peanuts and raspberries. Upon testing other liquors such as beer and hard liquor, researchers found they produced no significant effects. (20)

How Does Resveratrol Help Control Cancer Development?

Because it is an antioxidant, it has the ability to clear dangerous cancer-inducing radicals from the body
Its anti-inflammatory properties prevent certain enzymes from forming that trigger tumor development
It cuts down cell reproduction, which helps reduce the number of cell divisions that could contribute to the progression of cancer cell growth
May play a similar role to estrogen by its ability to reduce testosterone levels, which promote the cancer growth (21)

The study involved interviewing two groups of men: 753 recently diagnosed prostate cancer patients and 703 healthy patients, who acted as the control group. The goal of the study was to evaluate the possible benefits of drinking red wine. The participant's ages ranged from 40-64, with the majority under the age of 60.

This youthful range was considered one of the strong aspects of the study due to the fact the risks of prostate cancer are lower in younger age groups. This factor also allowed researchers to hone in on specific environmental factors of cancer risk such as wine consumption. (22)

Future studies are being planned to further research the relationship between resveratrol and prostate cancer.

An antioxidant found in grapes may make fruit stay fresher longer.

The antioxidant, resveratrol, is one of the components of red wine that is thought to combat heart disease and cancer by neutralizing oxidizing agents including free radicals.

The substance has previously been found to kill fungi on fruit and is known to fight diseases caused by yeasts and moulds that wilt many fruits, vegetables and cereals.

Modern agriculture is plagued by fruit losses due to microbial infections and natural aging during storage. Moreover, synthetic pesticides pose health risks to humans and can cause negative environmental effects.

Researchers wondered whether resveratrol's antioxidant properties would help to conserve fruit and found that a coating of the substance protected fruit from Botrytis cinerea, a fungus that causes fruit such as apples and grapes to shrivel.

Apples dipped in a resveratrol solution had a greatly increased shelf life, from two weeks to three months. Similarly, the shelf life of grapes doubled to two weeks after being dipped in the substance.

As little as four micrograms of resveratrol per grape was needed to produce the effect, researchers say. This amount is only 50 percent more than naturally found in grape skins. In apples, the same low-level amount of resveratrol kept 90 percent of apples that had been exposed to B. cinerea fresh after 60 days. Some remained fresh even after 75 days, whereas untreated apples shriveled within two weeks.

Researchers found that the substance also protected tomatoes, avocados and green peppers. They are looking for less-expensive methods of producing trans-resveratrol and plan to develop a commercial fruit-preservation system in about 18 months.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry January 1, 2003;51(1):82-9