Even I Don't Drink That Much Vino

An article in the N.Y. Times builds on previous reports citing potential health benefits for those who regularly drink red wine. This time it's supposed to slow the effects of aging. The key beneficial ingredient in red wine seems to be resveratrol.

Nice news, but there's also this snippet:

Separately from Sirtris’s investigations, a research team led by Tomas A. Prolla and Richard Weindruch, of the University of Wisconsin, reports ... that resveratrol may be effective in mice and people in much lower doses than previously thought necessary.

In earlier studies, like Dr. Auwerx’s of mice on treadmills, the animals were fed such large amounts of resveratrol that to gain equivalent dosages people would have to drink more than 100 bottles of red wine a day.

The Wisconsin scientists used a dose on mice equivalent to just 35 bottles a day. But red wine contains many other resveratrol-like compounds that may also be beneficial. Taking these into account, as well as mice’s higher metabolic rate, a mere four, five-ounce glasses of wine “starts getting close” to the amount of resveratrol they found effective, Dr. Weindruch said.

Of course, they don't tell you what impact drinking four 5-oz. glasses of wine every day might have on your liver.