Can Drinking Red Wine Help You To lose Weight?
Can you Burn calories while you Drink?
The dream, for a lot of people, would be able to drink red wine and lose pounds at the same time. Now wouldn't that be great? You could forget about going to the gym or keeping up with that special diet. Instead, you could just contemplate which red wine you will be drinking next.
Well, this article goes into both the 'sensational' claim that has been reported by the news media and the more factual side of this headline story.
Read on to find out how true this is.
Research shows that resveratrol, an ingredient found in grapes, berries and red wine can help turn flab into calorie-burning 'brown' fat. Just drink responsibly!
Wine lovers rejoice! New research has shown that an ingredient in grapes, berries and red wine can turn excess flab into calorie-burning “brown” fat. The discovery suggests that diets containing the substance, resveratrol, may help combat obesity.
Scientists gave mice amounts of resveratrol equivalent to humans consuming 12 ounces of fruit per day. They found that despite a high fat diet, the mice gained 40% less weight than animals not fed the compound.
The research showed that the mice were able to change their excess white fat to active “brown” or “beige” fat which reduces weight gain by burning up calories. Other “polyphenol” chemicals in fruit may have a similar effect, the scientists believe.
Now here is a more down-to-earth view of the headline that drinking red wine will help you lose weight...
"How to lose weight – drink plenty of red wine," is simply nonsense. First, the study it reports on did not involve red wine. Second, it was carried out on mice, not humans.
The mistaken headline was triggered by a study in mice looking into whether resveratrol, a plant polyphenol chemical found in the skin of red grapes, can stimulate the development of brown fat deposits within white fat tissue.
Human adults have very little brown fat, but we did as babies, where it helped us regulate our body temperature. Build-ups of white fat cause obesity, so finding a way to turn it into calorie-burning brown fat is thought to be one way to try to tackle the obesity problem.
This study found that higher doses of resveratrol caused the development of brown-fat-like cells within the white fat tissue of mice. The researchers hoped something like this might be possible in people. Importantly, based on mice studies only, we don't know whether resveratrol will have the same effect on people.
And drinking "plenty of red wine" will not lead you to lose weight – if anything the opposite will occur. A standard 750cl bottle of red wine contains around 570 calories, which is more than is found in two McDonald’s hamburgers.
Overall the study provides no evidence that drinking red wine will help you lose weight.
Content Sources: