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GRAPES
Any way you like them -- fresh, juiced, dried, or fermented -- grapes are a rich source of unusually potent antioxidants called flavonoids. University of Wisconsin heart researcher John Folts thinks the action of flavonoids may partly explain why regular wine drinkers are less likely to die of heart disease than are teetotalers.
In one experiment Folts and the members of his lab team drank not wine but purple grape juice every day for a week. The flavonoids in the juice, Folts found, were as effective as aspirin in preventing the kind of blood clotting that can lead to heart attacks.
The nearest thing to wine or grape juice on the supplement shelves is grape seed extract, which is high in proanthocyanidin, a flavonoid abundant in grapes. Pill-makers promote the extract as a safe, alcohol-free alternative to wine. But Folts points out that red and purple table grapes and grape juice are also fine options for nondrinkers, and they're almost certain to pack a richer antioxidant mix than the extract.
Not surprisingly, Folts says, "no one yet has the faintest idea what an ideal dose ought to be." Nor has anyone shown that antioxidants in the extracts even make it into the bloodstream, where they must travel to do the body any good. Supplements of resveratrol, another antioxidant found in grapes, looked promising until researchers discovered that when people swallowed the pills, the protective compound didn't turn up in their blood.
The bottom line:
Take Folts's advice and go for the fresh fruit or juice. Or pour yourself a glass of wine with dinner tonight. According to Meir Stampfer, an epidemiologist with the Harvard School of Public Health, the alcohol in wine (and other alcoholic beverages) probably does your heart and arteries more good than the antioxidants do. You can get several bottles of perfectly respectable zinfandel, merlot, or cabernet for the $34 you'd spend on a 60-capsule jar of grape seed extract.
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