Study Unlocks Fat-Fighting Potential of Resveratrol
Lee Swanson Research Update
In a recent study, lab animals fed a high-fat diet but supplemented with resveratrol had less body fat than non-supplemented animals, despite both groups having similar body weights, report researchers from the University of Pais Vasco in Valencia, Spain.
Resveratrol is often touted as the bioactive compound in grapes and red wine, and has particularly been associated with the so-called "French Paradox." The phrase, coined in 1992 by Dr. Serge Renaud from Bordeaux University, describes the low incidence of heart disease and obesity among the French, despite their relatively high-fat diet and levels of wine consumption. According to the new findings, resveratrol may offer fat-fighting potential, if the results are repeated in further studies, particularly human trials.
The Valencia-based scientists divided 16 rats into two equal groups. Both groups were fed an obesity-inducing diet, but one group had their diet supplemented with resveratrol (30 mg per kg of body weight per day).
After six weeks of study, the researchers found that both groups had similar body weight, but that the resveratrol-fed animals had significantly lower fat tissue levels.
A reduction in the activity of enzymes linked to fat production was also observed in the resveratrol-fed animals, they noted, as well as in the activity of enzymes responsible for the uptake of fatty acids from triglycerides in the blood.
"It is important to point out that the effective dose in our experimental design, as well as those used by other authors, is far greater than the amount usually ingested by humans (100-930 mcg per day), meaning that the positive effects of this molecule on body fat would only be achieved by the intake of resveratrol pills or functional foods enriched with this molecule," the researchers wrote in Nutrition & Metabolism.
Despite offering plausible mechanisms for the potential anti-obesity activity of resveratrol, the researchers note that other mechanisms may still be responsible. "These should be further investigated in order to determine its whole body-fat mechanism of action," they concluded.
Nutrition & Metabolism; Published online ahead of print.
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May, 2011