Wine's Benefit Knows No Color

More than a decade ago, a landmark study drove home a message that resonated with wine lovers everywhere: Drink red wine in moderation to lower your risk for a heart attack. Now, new results suggest that some white wines protect the heart just as well, at least in rats. The study, which was partially funded by the grape industry, suggests that more heart-protective chemicals exist in grapes than scientists had suspected.

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In the new study, the researchers decided to find out how. For 30 days, they fed rats either grape skins, grape flesh, or a sugar-water solution, in addition to their normal chow. Then they sacrificed each rat and kept its heart beating in the lab with a contraption that bathed it in nourishing fluid. To see how well the rat's diet protected its heart, the team mimicked a heart attack by stopping fluid flow for 30 minutes, then restarting it to revive the heart.