Wine to Weight Loss?
ASU study looks for health benefits off the vine

By Tiffany Allison

Appalachian State University professors Lisa McAnulty, Steve McAnulty and Tim Radak are looking for

volunteers to participate in a study focusing on chronic and acute effects of daily red-wine consumption and its effect on weight loss and body fat reduction.

According to a study on obese mice by Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging, red wine contains an antioxidant compound called resveratrol, which reduces the amount of fat cells in the body, the rate of diabetes, liver problems and other obesity-related diseases. Their study found that heavy doses of resveratrol cuts the rate of obesity related deaths by 31 percent in mice.

The McAnultys and Radak decided to conduct their own experiment using North Carolina wine and examine the effects on North Carolina residents. Participants will be tested for weight loss and body fat reduction, rate of illness, changes in blood lipids, C-reactive protein, blood antioxidant capacity and blood oxidative stress.

With more than 71 percent of adult males and 55 percent of adult females in North Carolina suffering from obesity, Radak and the McAnultys consider this experiment highly relevant to a sizeable section of the population.

“Our hope through this project would be to see a reduction in body weight, and we would also hope to see a reduction in oxidative stress, a reduction in inflammation, and blood lipids would decline. We hope everything would be positively affected by the wine,” Steve McAnulty said.

“We also see this as an economic benefit for the North Carolina Wine and grape juice industry,” Radak said.

Researchers are accepting 34 obese participants who must be over 40, on no prescription medication and non-smokers. The study will last for a little over a month. The first two weeks participants will drink two five-ounce glasses of wine a day. After the two weeks, participants will have a resting period where they are not allowed to consume any alcohol. During the last two weeks of the study, participants will switch over to grape juice drinking two five-ounce glasses a day.

Duplin Wines of Rose Hill in North Carolina donated 18 cases of wine amounting to $1,700 in support for the study. D’vine Foods contributed a supply of non-alcoholic grape juice. Both use muscadine grapes, a variety with a rich history in North Carolina and which are a significant source of polyphenols and other nutrients.

“We are actually taking something that people enjoy already and are providing information about how it can reduce health problems,” Radak said. “We advocate moderate consumption and our study follows those guidelines. This is a powerful substance we are talking about, these aren’t onions.”

Participants will receive a full lipid panel, which consists of three different lab analysis of blood lipids; a Dexa Scan, which is a body scan that accurately measures bone density and body composition; a diet analysis, which will consist of blood tests measuring the oxidative stress, amount of antioxidants and cardio vascular health; and free wine.

For more information about the study, please contact Tim Radak at radaktl@appstate.edu.