Fake data behind red wine benefit claims, experts allege | CTV News

Fake data behind red wine benefit claims, experts allege | CTV News

The old red wine argument.. I've never found good quality research that demonstrated any truly significant advantage to consuming red wine for any health purpose that was more effective than the standard of eating healthy, exercising regularly, keeping weight down, and consistently getting good sleep.

You think you read about research that proves cardiovascular benefits of red wine consumption? Maybe not.. Dipak Das, a researcher known for his work demonstrating heart health benefits from red wine has been exposed as a faker, falsifying data more than 100 times.

I did a simple pubmed search using "das red wine" as the search criteria and found 39 studies where this Das was an author or was cited.  Searching for abstracts that included this authors name alone results in 619 studies.  Disheartening that many of these studies were spoiled by falsified data regarding red wine and resveratrol, an important antioxidant found in dark coloured grapes, cranberries, cranberry juice, purple grape juice, and red wine, with the highest concentrations in red grapes, cranberries, and the juice of these.

I won't throw the baby out with the bathwater, there is ongoing research done by other researchers finding possible benefits of resveratrol.

Much to the chagrin of many, I have steadfastly maintained that there isn't really any good health related reason to drink red wine. You want a glass of red wine? It won't hurt, but more than 1.5 or 2 glasses per day may be harmful (woman, men). For sure overconsumption of booze is undeniably harmful in many ways physically and psychologically.

What I really believe is that many will use the "it's healthy" excuse to justify daily wine drinking. Get over it, because it isn't.

We'll have to wait and see if someone does discover some truly significant health benefit from wine drinking. For now, wine can't compete with a healthy diet, exercise, keeping weight down, and getting a good nights sleep.

The experts say that if you don't drink now, don't start, as the possible health benefits are not great enough to justify starting to drink.

There is no harm in infrequent light drinking so don't worry about that.

Coffee and Cancer

Two studies investigating the connection between coffee consumption and cancer have received a lot of press coverage.  One on prostate cancer in men (1), the other on breast cancer in woman (2).

In both studies high coffee consumption, 5, 6 or more cups of coffee was associated with a significant decrease in prostate and breast cancers.

These aren't the only studies to show the chemo protective effects of coffee, there is a fairly large body of evidence supporting this.  So yes coffee drinkers, there appears to be strong evidence supporting anti-cancer benefits from coffee consumption.

The study on prostate cancer also tested decaffeinated coffee and the same anti-cancer effect was found.  Researchers believe that compounds in coffee, perhaps the antioxidants, are responsible for the possible cancer prevention effect.

Diet and exercise also have strong anti-cancer effects as well so let's not forget about that.  Diet and exercise overall have a more rewarding and profound positive effect on all aspects of health and fitness than coffee consumption does so if you're a regular coffee drinker but are lacking in the diet and exercise realm, start exercising.  Coffee does not make you more fit, stronger, more flexible, or increase bone density, but exercise can do all those things.

When we hear about coffee having positive effects we celebrate the news, but many of us lament hearing about the greater positive effects of healthy living.  We like habits that have a negative association, and tend to resist habits that are truly good for us.  I think the reason is healthy living ironically get's a bad rap: it's hard, it's boring, it's time consuming.  Really healthy living is invigorating, stress relieving, and very rewarding.  How many healthy fit people have you heard say they hate being healthy and fit?

Researchers aren't yet prepared to recommend starting coffee consumption to prevent prostate or breast cancer, conversely though, the pro's give the nod to starting exercise and making healthy food choices to reduce risk of cancer, and risk of other diseases such as type two diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Recently I wrote about research that demonstrated coffee and fat consumption increases blood sugar response to sugar intake, with an endpoint recommendation for those with type two diabetes to abstain or at least reduce coffee consumption (3).

Anecdotally I can say that of those who I have known to either cut down or cut out coffee consumption completely, all of them have said they feel better.  They talk about being free from the daily cycle of feeling agitated and brain dead until they get their java fix.  Now they are naturally alert and are able to cope with daily stress better than they did when dependant on coffee.

I think the take home message here is that coffee does have some legitimate positive health effects, some legitimate negative health effects, and that comparatively, healthy diet and exercise have a far greater net positive effect on our health and well being.


(1) Coffee Consumption and Prostate Cancer Risk and Pr... [J Natl Cancer Inst. 2011] - PubMed result

(2) Coffee consumption modifies risk of estrogen-recep... [Breast Cancer Res. 2011] - PubMed result

(3) Live Healthy: High Fat Intake Increases Blood Sugar; Adding Coffee Doubles Blood Sugar Rise

Maple Syrup- Confirmed Super Food?

Last year researchers from the University of Rhode Island published a study (1) showing 23 phenolic compounds discovered in Canadian maple syrup.

News headlines touted pure maple syrup as the new super food to placed amongst other start foods such as blueberries and flax.

The same group of researchers, funded by AAFC (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), have now found a total of 34 phenolic compounds believed to be of benefit to health. Some of these compounds are the first to be discovered in nature.

One of the new compounds was named, "Quebecol", in honour of Canada's most prolific maple syrup producers.  Quebecol is thought to be formed during the process of boiling down tree sap to a concentrated syrup.

Although this study shows abundant antioxidants in maple syrup, many foods contain these compounds.  It should also be noted that there are no studies showing direct health benefits from consuming maple syrup so while this is interesting news, there is no evidence that supports a positive health outcome from consuming maple syrup.

1 tablespoon of pure maple syrup contains 52 calories, about 10 calories less than a tablespoon of table sugar.  Maple syrup tastes more sweet than refined sugar so you get more sweet for less calories.

A tablespoon of maple syrup is about 20 grams and 52 calories.

28 grams of blueberries is 16 calories.

Half a cup of blueberries is 42 calories.

Here is a good counter point to the Maple Syrup study:

Canadian scientist slams maple syrup study touting health benefits


(1) Maple syrup phytochemicals include lignans, coumar... [J Agric Food Chem. 2010] - PubMed result