Drinking red wine helps you burn fat and boosts your metabolism, scientists have claimed
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Drinking red wine helps you burn fat and could improve conditions such as fatty liver disease, scientists claim.
A glass of red, or even grape juice could help those overweight better manage their health, especially metabolic disorders.
Researchers found that a chemical in red grapes, ellagic acid, dramatically slowed the growth of existing fat cells and formation of new ones, and boosted metabolism of fatty acids in liver cells.
However they stress that the tipple must be in moderation and ellagic acid is not a weight-loss miracle cure.
Professor Neil Shay, a biochemist and molecular biologist in Oregon State University's College of Agricultural Sciences, exposed human liver and fat cells grown in the lab to extracts of four natural chemicals found in Muscadine grapes, a dark-red variety native to the southeastern United States.
He said: 'By boosting the burning of fat, especially in the liver, these plant chemicals may improve liver function in overweight people.
'If we could develop a dietary strategy for reducing the harmful accumulation of fat in the liver, using common foods like grapes, then that would be good news.'
The team fed some mice on a 10 per cent fat food and others on a 60 per cent fat variety, the sort of unhealthy diet that would pile excess pounds on a human.
Some were also fed on a grape extract over a ten weeks trial, which was equivalent to about one and a half cups of grapes a day for humans.
Prof Shay said: 'Our mice like that high-fat diet and they overconsume it, so they're a good model for the sedentary person who eats too much snack food and doesn't get enough exercise.
'The high-fat-fed mice developed fatty liver and diabetic symptoms, the same metabolic consequences we see in many overweight, sedentary people.
Researchers found that a chemical in red grapes, ellagic acid, dramatically slowed the growth of existing fat cells and formation of new ones. File photo
'But the chubby mice that got the extracts accumulated less fat in their livers, and they had lower blood sugar, than those that consumed the high-fat diet alone.
'Ellagic acid proved to be a powerhouse in this experiment, too, lowering the high-fat-fed mice's blood sugar to nearly the levels of the lean, normally fed mice.'
However he added: 'We didn't find, and we didn't expect to, that these compounds would improve body weight.
'We are trying to validate the specific contributions of certain foods for health benefits.
'If you're out food shopping, and if you know a certain kind of fruit is good for a health condition you have, wouldn't you want to buy that fruit?'
The study is published in the January issue of the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.
FORGET CALORIE-COUNTING, LOSE WEIGHT BY SCOFFING A SPICY CURRY
Scoffing a hot curry could actually help you lose weight, according to scientists.
Researchers have discovered that the active ingredient in chillies, capsaicin, stimulates energy burning by the body.
And the discovery may eventually help to prevent and manage obesity and other related health complications such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases.
A third of the world's population by the World Health Organisation's estimates is currently overweight or obese.
This staggering statistics has made finding ways to address obesity a top priority for many scientists and a team at the University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy found that dietary capsaicin initiated a response in a channel protein known as TRPV1 which suppresses high-fat-diet-induced obesity.
Eating a spicy curry could actually help you lose weight, according to scientists
Vivek Krishnan, a graduate student in the team, said: 'Obesity is caused by an imbalance between calorie intake and energy dissipation,.
'In our bodies, white fat cells store energy and brown fat cells serve as thermogenic (heat produced by burning fat) machinery to burn stored fat. Eating calorie-rich food and a lack of physical activity cause an imbalance in metabolism that leads to obesity.
'High-fat-diet obesity and dietary capsaicin, 0.01 percent of capsaicin in the total high fat diet, prevented high-fat-diet-induced weight gain in trials with wild type mice, but not in mice that genetically lacked TRPV1.
'The temptation to eat fatty foods is often so strong that, for many, it can override or overpower any dietary restrictions.
'As a solution to this problem, we developed a novel approach to stimulate energy metabolism without the need to restrict calorie intake.
'Dietary capsaicin didn't modify food or water intake in these mice, although it did significantly increase the metabolic activity and energy expenditure in wild type mice fed a high-fat diet, but not for mice that genetically lack TRPV1.
Researchers have discovered that the active ingredient in chillies, capsaicin, stimulates energy burning
'We found that dietary capsaicin may stimulate thermogenesis and energy burning by activating its receptors, which are expressed in white and brown fat cells, though this effect has not yet been demonstrated in carefully-controlled clinical trials.'
Explaining the research, presented to the Biophysical Society's 59th Annual Meeting, Mr Krishnan added: 'The main goal of our work is to expand the knowledge of the mechanism by which capsaicin antagonises obesity, as well as to advance the proof of principle of the anti-obesity potential of dietary capsaicin.
'Next, we'll focus on our longer-term goal of developing TRPV1 agonists as new drug molecules to prevent and treat obesity.
'Developing a natural dietary supplement as a strategy to combat obesity can be easily advanced to human clinical trials
'We envision a nanoparticle-based sustained-release formulation of capsaicin, which is currently under development in our laboratory.
'In turn, this will advance a novel dietary supplement-based approach to prevent and treat one of the life-threatening diseases, obesity and its associated complications in humans.
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