PBA ReporterA research team at Western New England University has found that snacking on grapes might combat the effects of consuming a junk food diet—flushing out the refined fats and sugars of processed food.
Eating the grapes led to “unique gene expression patterns, reduced fatty liver, and extension of lifespan” for animals consuming the high-fat diet, said Dr. John Pezzuto who led the team at Western New England University.
Pezzuto, who has authored over 600 studies, called it “truly remarkable.”
“It adds an entirely new dimension to the old saying ‘you are what you eat,” Pezzuto said.
In a series of experiments, mice gorged on a high fat diet, similar to those consumed in western countries.
They also received over a cup of daily powdered grape supplement. These lab rodents had less fatty liver—and lived longer than those who didn’t.
The effect was an alteration of gene expression. As shown in this paper, fatty liver—which affects around 25% of humans and can eventually lead to liver cancer—is prevented or delayed. The genes responsible for the development of fatty liver were altered in a beneficial way by feeding grapes.
In addition to genes related to fatty liver, the researchers found increased levels of antioxidant genes after the grape-supplemented diets.
“Many people think about taking dietary supplements that boast high antioxidant activity,” explained Pezzuto. “In actual fact, though, you cannot consume enough of an antioxidant to make a big difference. 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.”
Precisely how this relates to humans remains to be seen, but it is clear that the grapes actually change the expression of genes—in more places than the liver, too, explained the professor of pharmaceutics.
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