your product that might make it sound less
bad? Of course you would! So if you were Mr.
Red Wine Producer, you might read (or fund)
some studies on the heart-healthy effects of
certain antioxidants, like resveratrol,* realize
your wine contains tiny amounts of this
healthy compound, and start marketing your
wine as “heart healthy.”
We can hardly blame him. After all, Mr.
Red Wine Producer isn’t looking out for your
health—he’s looking out for his profits
(nothing wrong with that; he’s running a
business, after all). Finding something healthy
about his product is very, very good for
business.
The problem is, it’s a technicality. A fluid
ounce of red wine averages 160 micrograms
of resveratrol (with a wide range of variability
between bottles and sources). Most research
on resveratrol has been done on animals, not
people—and to get the same dose of
resveratrol used in the mice studies, a person