Resveratrol Helps to Reduce Fat Tissue Formation

Lab animals fed a high-fat diet but supplemented with resveratrol, an antioxidant compound in red wine, had less body fat than non-supplemented animals, despite both groups having similar body weights.  Goiuri Alberdi, from the University of País Vasco (Spain), and colleagues divided 16 rats into two equal groups. Both groups were fed an obesity-inducing diet, but one group had their diet supplemented with resveratrol (30 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day).  After six weeks of study, the researchers found that both groups had similar body weight, but that the resveratrol fed animals has significantly lower fat tissue levels. A reduction in the activity of enzymes linked to fat production was also observed in the resveratrol-fed animals, they noted, as well as in the activity of enzymes responsible for the uptake of fatty acids from triglycerides in the blood. The team concludes that: “It can be proposed that the body fat-lowering effect of resveratrol is mediated, at least in part, by a reduction in fatty acid uptake from circulating triacylglycerols and also in de novo lipogenesis.”