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The term "French Paradox" refers to the fact that per capita alcohol consumption, in the form of wine, and saturated fat intake in France are very high, but levels of coronary heart disease in that country are relatively low. Researchers have discovered that one reason for the low rate of coronary heart disease is the presence of phenolic compounds or antioxidants such as "resveratrol" in wine, especially red wine. Studies show that resveratrol lowers LDL cholesterol (the so-called "bad") while elevating HDL cholesterol (the "good") levels, which helps to clear arterial walls of harmful deposits (Mississippi Agricultural & Forestry Experimental Station, Vol. 58, No. 2).
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Recent studies have found muscadine grapes and their resulting products, such as those in NutraGrape, to contain more resveratrol and other antioxidants than any other types of grapes. Muscadine grapes contain antioxidants in skins, seed, pulp, juice and wine.
Dr. Arthur Klatsky, chief of the Division of Cardiology at the Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente Medical group monitored 8,000 people for 10 years. The results (published in Alcohol and Mortality: A New, Prospective Kaiser Permanente Study, Annals of Internal Medicine, 117, 1992) showed that people who drink one or two glasses of wine per day live longer and are less likely to die from all causes than either abstainers or heavy drinkers.
To compare the antioxidant values of various foods and nutrients scientists developed a unit of measure called the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbing Capacity). The higher the ORAC rating of a substance, the more free radicals it can neutralize. Some minerals and vitamins act as antioxidants. This does not mean you should take a dose larger that the recommended amount without a doctor's supervision. There can be serious side effects. The best way to increase your antioxidant levels is to get them from supplements that contain the phytochemicals found naturally in plants and of course muscadine grape seeds.
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