Doctors of USC

Wine, it appears, helps assuage more than the guilt of indulging in a single high-fat meal.

USC pharmacologist Alex Sevanian, Ph.D., and colleagues in Italy have shown that drinking wine with a meal may help rid the body of potentially damaging fats and other compounds before they reach the blood vessels. The build up of fatty streaks in the arteries causes them to narrow so blood flow is slowed. This process, known as atherosclerosis, is the leading cause of heart disease and stroke.

In the study, the team asked two participants to lunch on deep fried fish and pasta drenched in olive oil. As expected, researchers found that, directly after the high-fat meal, levels of unhealthy triglycerides in the blood shot sky high. So, too, did levels of molecules called lipid peroxides, the oxidized fats that appear to play a role in cardiovascular disease.

When the researchers added a glass of red wine to the same fat-filled menu, they discovered that the wine dramatically reduced levels of lipid peroxides and triglycerides in the blood stream. They concluded that the powerful antioxidants found in wine may help protect fatty molecules from oxidation and speed metabolism of fats while still in the gut.

"Common sense, and many scientific studies, tells us to avoid a high-fat diet. But if a sumptuous meal containing cooked fats is to be eaten, then a glass of wine taken with the meal appears to be beneficial," Sevanian says.

Drinking wine before or after dinner, however, probably will not help, since the antioxidants seem to protect against compounds in the food itself. And researchers caution that drinking too much alcohol brings its own health risks, including a higher risk of heart disease and cancer.

The idea that wine may prove protective to arteries is not new, Sevanian notes. Red wine's antioxidant properties has long been thought to explain the so-called French paradox-despite a diet rich in fats, the French have a lower risk of coronary disease than Americans. "We've assumed that this related to the daily intake of red wine," Sevanian says.