The Media is reporting inaccurate information!!!
This should come as no surprise to anyone that has been reading my blog for sometime now. But yet again the media has twisted the message from scientific research to make a good headline. This proliferation of inaccurate information is terrible! This is the latest (that was actually on the Yahoo homepage so lot's of people are getting bad information).
"Grape juice seems to have the same protective effect against heart disease as red wine, French scientists said on Wednesday."
WRONG!
Apparently they don't have Medline in France. This conclusion is a huge stretch and actually the opposite is probably true. I have recently written a review article (soon to be published) on the different effects lifestyle changes can have on HDL (or good cholesterol). This included looking at the effects of red wine (and other alcohols) on cholesterol and other predictors of heart disease. Several studies compare wine vs. wine extract (essentially just the antioxidants) or wine vs. grape juice and the wine always has the greatest effect.
"But Schini-Kerth, whose research was partly funded by Welch Foods Inc which is a leading producer of grape juice, said little information is available on the levels of polyphenols in grape juice."
That's an interesting disclosure. I'm not against food industry funded studies only when crazy claims are made to make their products look better. I can only imagine Welch's marketing campaign now.
"The scientists were studying cells from pigs, which provide a good model for studying human cells."
This is another important piece of information. The researchers were studying pig cells in a dish. Not human cells. Not even pig cells in a pig. These findings should be taken with a big grain of sea salt! Especially because prior research in live humans has shown that the alcohol is the important part when it comes to modifying cholesterol levels and heart disease risk factors.
Here's the link to the article.
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