Grapes could stave off dementia and extend your lifespans, a new study has reported. Researchers have commented on the 'astonishing' effects of the common fruit on health and life expectancy.
Adding grapes to a high-fat diet reduced the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and increased levels of antioxidant genes, reported the study recently published in the journal Food. Previous research has found an association between NAFLD and increased dementia risks.
Western New England University scientists, who conducted the study on mice, said the benefits would correspond to an additional four to five years of life in humans.
Grapes are rich in health-boosting antioxidants. One of them, resveratrol, stimulates a gene that has been linked to a longer lifespan, whilst another one - flavonoids - have anti-inflammatory effects.
Pharmaceutics professor and team leader John M. Pezzuto, who has authored over 600 scientific studies, called the findings 'truly remarkable'.
He said: "We have all heard the saying 'you are what you eat' which is obviously true since we all start out as a fetus and end up being an adult by eating food. But these studies add an entirely new dimension to that old saying. Not only is food converted to our body parts, but as shown by our work with dietary grapes, it actually changes our genetic expression. That is truly remarkable."
Many people take dietary supplements, but Dr Pezzuto said it's not possible to consume enough of an antioxidant to make a big difference.
The same team of scientists reported in another study that eating grapes altered gene expression in the brain with positive effects on behaviour and cognition impaired by a high-fat diet.
Dr Pezzuto said: "But if you change the level of antioxidant gene expression, as we observed with grapes added to the diet, the result is a catalytic response that can make a real difference."
The genes responsible for the development of fatty liver were altered in a beneficial way by feeding grapes to the mice. The researchers say this means fatty liver - which affects around 25 percent of the world's population and can eventually lead to liver cancer - is prevented or delayed.
A separate study, published in the journal Food & Nutrition, found that grapes also boost metabolism.
The research was partly funded by the California Table Grape Commission which provided the grapes used in the studies.
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