Wine, chocolate and longevity?

Not so fast.  For the last few decades we believed consuming red wine and chocolate (both containing resveratrol) helped with heart health, decreased cancer and increased our longevity. Seems not.

A team from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and NIH’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) studied nearly 800 people living in Italy’s Chianti Region. Among the 783 volunteers, no significant differences in heart disease, cancer, or longevity was documented between those people who consumed a diet high in resveratrol and those who consumed very little. The first study was conducted for nearly 16 years.

The good news: a little red wine and a piece of dark chocolate (from Perugia, Italy, perhaps?), did not harm a soul. Mangia bene !

(S-R archive photo: Workers sort red wine grapes at Reininger Winery in the Walla Walla Valley during the 2013 harvest.)