Red Wine Ingredient a Boon to Couch Potatoes

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Red wine is forever appearing in health news articles. While indulging too much is negative for the body, one to two glasses in a day is believed to have some very beneficial effects. A new study may further promote red wine as being a whispered mention of doctors’ advice in staying healthy. This one focused on helping sedentary people become healthier.

Now, first and foremost, exercise is a must. Achieving some level of fitness is crucial to one’s long-standing health and longevity. With that out of the way, let’s dive into the fine points of this unusual and interesting study that further cements red wine in the category of healing foods.

Published in the “FASEB Journal,” the study suggests that the healthy ingredient in red wine, resveratrol, may prevent the negative effects that sedentary lifestyles exert. The report describes experiments in rats that simulated the weightlessness of spaceflight (certainly no exercise happening there). The rats fed resveratrol did not develop insulin resistance, which is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes. They also did not suffer a loss in bone mineral density, which can pave the way to osteoporosis, bone fractures, and arthritis. But the rats not fed resveratrol did experience these two health issues.

Overwhelming data prove that the human body needs physical activity. For many of us, getting that activity isn’t easy. Health conditions, injuries, lack of time and work environments can make staying fit difficult. It will never be a substitute for exercise, as nothing could ever be, but resveratrol could slow deterioration until someone can get moving again. It is found in high amounts in red wine, and in supplement form.

More on the study: the rats were kept sedentary and given a daily oral load of resveratrol. The rats not receiving the supplement showed a decrease in muscle mass and strength, and developed insulin resistance, and a loss of bone mineral density. The group receiving resveratrol showed none of these complications. Study results further showed how resveratrol may work in this way, and even suggested that resveratrol may be able to prevent the negative consequences of sedentary behaviors in people.