Can eating grapes lead to a longer life?

Eating a bowl of grapes a day can potentially add five years to your life.

A new study in mice finds that adding grapes to the diet improves gene expression patterns, reduces fatty liver and extends the lifespan of animals that eat a high-fat western diet.

The study, published in the journal “Foods,” found that the long-term addition of grapes to the diet of mice leads to unique gene expression patterns that turbocharge antioxidant gene expression.

"Many people think about taking dietary supplements that boast high antioxidant activity,” said Dr. John Pezzuto of Western New England University, who led the research. “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.

"We have all heard the saying 'you are what you eat',” he said in an article produced by his university. “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."

The paper shows that grapes can help to prevent fatty liver, which affects about 25% of the population and can lead to liver cancer and other health issues. The study found that genes responsible for the development of fatty liver were beneficially altered by eating grapes. It also showed that grapes can  extend the lifespan of mice that consume a high-fat western pattern diet that is associated with adverse conditions like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, autoimmune diseases and Alzheimer's disease. Adding grapes to the diet, which did not affect the rate of consumption or body weight, delayed natural death.

Although translating mouse results to human terms is not an exact science, Pezzuto estimates the change observed in the study would correspond to an extra 4 to 5 years in the life of a human.

Adding more excitement about the promise of grapes, related research published in the journal “Food & Function,” showed that – besides altering gene expression – grapes can change metabolism.

Obviously, many questions need to be explored. However, we always get excited when something we already like – like table grapes – are found to be even healthier than we expected. 

Now we’re waiting for the study that explores whether the same benefits are available from wine.