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Researchers at the University of California, Irvine found that a beverage made with grape powder may help protect against colon cancer. The work followed earlier findings suggesting that moderate red wine intake—a source of the antioxidant resveratrol—might improve survival in colon cancer patients. In that earlier analysis, 75% of wine drinkers were still alive 10 years after diagnosis, compared with 47% of non-drinkers.
At the Society for Integrative Oncology’s Fourth International Conference (2007), UC Irvine researchers compared a resveratrol supplement (20 mg/day) with grape-powder beverages containing either 80 g or 120 g of powder. The lower grape-powder dose blocked activation of the Wnt cellular pathway, which is linked to colon-cancer development—an effect not seen with the resveratrol pill alone.
This small study suggests that whole-food compounds in grapes may work synergistically in ways isolated nutrients do not. Although resveratrol has been shown to be beneficial to ulcerative colitis sufferers.
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