 So you've been feeling virtuous quaffing red wine, nibbling on dark chocolate and popping grapes, thinking you're reaping the life-extending, disease-fighting, health-promoting benefits of resveratrol. The latest research on the promising polyphenol was conducted on the senior population of two villages in the Chianti region of Italy -- 783 men and women 65 and older whose health and resveratrol intake was tracked between 1998 to 2009. Nor was it associated with any markers of inflammation in the blood, the researchers report in JAMA Internal Medicine. Avoiding the pitfalls of asking study participants to record or recall their daily intake, the researchers regularly gathered specimens of subjects' urine and tested them for levels of resveratrol metabolites. During the nine years of the study, 268 of the men and women died, 174 developed heart disease and 34 got cancer. The latest research was led by Johns Hopkins University opthamologist and public health specialist Dr. Richard D. Semba. And for them, consumed resveratrol didn't help. Sinclair says the Chianti study certainly casts doubt on a central tenet of the "French paradox" -- the surmise that it is the resveratrol in red wine consumed by the French that has kept cardiovascular disease relatively low in a country where saturated fat is plentifully consumed.
– Researchers still don't know why the red wine-loving French have such low rates of heart disease despite their fatty diet—but they're now pretty sure it doesn't have much to do with an ingredient in the wine. Researchers tracked around 800 Italian villagers over nine years and discovered that their intake of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine and dark chocolate, made no difference at all to their risk of dying or of contracting heart disease or cancer, the BBC reports. "The thinking was that certain foods are good for you because they contain resveratrol. We didn't find that at all," the lead researcher says. "The story of resveratrol turns out to be another case where you get a lot of hype about health benefits that doesn't stand the test of time." Other studies have linked resveratrol to longevity and reduced levels of disease, but only when it is consumed in amounts much greater than that found in people's diets, the Los Angeles Times notes.