Originally, I was
thankful that I had signed up for the first lab session, thinking, “Perfect,
now I’ll have something to write my blog about!” But all of the olive oil
discussions in class have piqued my interest on food and antioxidants. So here
I am, making a compromise by loosely tying my blog to the lab I attended
yesterday, while still relating to our class discussions.
Dr. Baratto gave
us a lecture yesterday on the application of EPR spectroscopy to study the
antioxidant activity in wine. She noted that antioxidants protect from free radicals, which
inflict damage in the form of oxidation. Free radicals are pathogenic to our
bodies because the oxidation process degrades cells, proteins, and the ends of DNA
strands, causing us to age faster (only slightly, but still... doesn’t sound
too great). Her description of red wine sounded a lot like olive oil. We've already learned that polyphenols in olive oil act as antioxidants to neutralize the free radicals.
I decided to look
up the antioxidant properties of wine described by Dr. Baratto, and I came
across a certain polyphenol called resveratrol. Resveratrol is naturally
present in the skin of red grapes and other dark berries. And since it’s in the
skin of grapes, it’s therefore in red wine as well. Dr. Baratto said that her
EPR results in lab indicated that samples of red wine showed a higher decrease
in free radicals than white wine (I found out later that this was because the
process of making red wine retains more skin from grapes than the process of
making white wine).
Resveratrol is
thought to work by activating the SIRT1 gene, which produces proteins that
reduce inflammation and oxidation in cells. Oops, sorry... the bio major in me
is coming out.
Anyways, the more
I read about resveratrol, the more it sounded just like oleocanthal in olive
oil.
resveratrol oleocanthal
The similarities
were endless: both are polyphenols, both display the anti-inflammatory effect
of inhibiting cycloxygenases, both react with free radicals to reduce disease,
both are considered “anti-aging,” both have claims of cardio health benefits,
etc. Also, both have been chemically synthesized. In fact, people can take
resveratrol “anti-aging” supplements.
Excellent! An
excuse to drink wine! But all of these wonderful claims sounded a bit too good
to be true. After searching some more, I found studies that cautioned against
the intake of resveratrol because while it may work in vitro, when it's actually in the human body it interacts with numerous proteins,
and some of these interactions may end up being toxic. Hmmm, sounds like the author of this study talked to the same people who wrote that letter to the editor we read
for class today. Also, studies on resveratrol that produced beneficial health results used daily doses of 1 g in human systems. Apparently,
1 g of resveratrol is equivalent to 667 bottles of red wine. So the health
benefits of these clinical studies are outrageously unrealistic. Just like how
the daily consumption of olive oil by average humans is only a fraction of that
used in oleocanthal studies.
The letter to the
editor today cautioned against the presentation of oleocanthal as a miraculous cure-all
compound. Maybe researchers should take some advice from this letter regarding
resveratrol.
Sources:
Nice connection between olive oil and wine. Unfortunately, I prefer wine white which provides less anti-oxidants. Same as my preference in chocolate, the bitter dark chocolate has most the most anti-oxidants and I do not enjoy the taste.
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