Is Red Wine better for your heart than Grapes?

You hear a lot in the media about how a few studies have shown a possible link between 1 glass of red wine a day and a healthy heart. Of course, none of the studies have been conclusive. According to the Mayo Clinic web site (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/red-wine/HB00089), Resveratrol MIGHT be a key ingredient in red wine that helps prevent damage to blood vessels, reduces "bad" cholesterol and prevents blood clots. Most of the research that backs that up has been conducted on mice, which is how most such research is conducted. Here is the interesting thing to me. The key ingredient in red wine that most researchers think produces the benefit can also be found in grapes and grape juice. There is nothing that indicates that the form of Resveratrol in red wine is more beneficial than what is in grapes. Of course, I have never heard that part in the media because the only newsworthy part is that wine is good for you. I suspect that the alcohol content probably does as much damage as the antioxidants do good. So why not just eat grapes or drink grape juice since that is where the active ingredient that produces the benefit begins. Nobody seems to be studying that very closely because they are too busy trying to show some benefit to alcohol.

Why bother with the alcohol? Grapes taste much better and do much less damage to your other systems if you eat a lot of them. By the way, to get as much benefit from the wine as the mouse does, a human would have to drink 100 to 1,000 bottles of wine in a day according to the Mayo Clinic article.