The antioxidant resveratrol does not improve longevity when consumed at levels naturally occurring in foods like grapes, red wine and dark chocolate, according to a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. “We looked at the relationship between resveratrol levels and a lot of health outcomes that are thought to be related to resveratrol, such as cancer and heart disease and lifespan. And we found no relationship,” says Dr. Richard Semba, study author and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The potential health benefits of consuming moderate amounts of red wine have been much discussed ever since researchers identified the “French paradox” – an observation that the French have lower levels of heart disease despite consuming relatively high amounts of saturated fat. Some epidemiologists proposed that France’s relatively high rates of red wine consumption may help explain the supposed paradox, and further studies have shown that light to moderate alcohol consumption does in fact correlate with healthier hearts.

The new study does not contradict these conclusions.best wine tours in nyc More recently, researchers at Harvard Medical School and the National Institutes of Health identified a specific chemical in red wine – resveratrol – that seems to significantly delay the effects of aging in mice, when given in very high doses.good cheap sweet red wine brands Today, Americans spend some $30 million per year on resveratrol supplements, even though there have been no long-term studies in humans to measure resveratrol’s effect on longevity.best wine journal So researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Barcelona tracked 783 men and women aged 65 or older, analyzing who survived and who died over a nine-year period in relation to their resveratrol levels.buy big carl wine glass uk

The results show no benefits – in terms of longevity, reduced inflammation, heart disease or cancer – to having higher levels of resveratrol versus lower or moderate levels.wine gift sets for christmas However, study participants’ resveratrol came only from their diets – consuming foods like red wine, chocolate, and berries – which provides almost negligible amounts of resveratrol compared to the levels found in supplements and studied in mice.buy wine online australia free delivery In fact, a person would have to drink hundreds of glasses of red wine a day to match the amounts used in previous resveratrol studies.best us port wine “This study is very important because it demonstrates, in a long-term study with a huge cohort, that (normal) dietary resveratrol levels are not correlated with all-cause mortality,” says Juan Carlos Espin, a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council.good food and wine free tickets

“However, to claim that resveratrol does not have influence on the all-cause of mortality would require the comparison of a cohort with 'normal' resveratrol levels (very low and unpredictable) versus another cohort with a standardized resveratrol supplementation.”top wine regions united states MORE: Red wine and dark chocolate won't save your life Ageing wine is always a gamble. You can reduce the risks by storing in a dark, cool (<70F), and vibration free space. Heat and light are the great enemies of wine. Storage at room temperature speeds up aging of wine by a factor of four. A few hours in the trunk of a car at 120F will destroy a white wine in a single day. Direct sunlight can kill a white wine in a matter of hours. Not all wines are meant to age and many of Tolosa’s wines are at their best within a year or so of release. Some examples of this category are the Sauvignon Blanc, the No Oak Chardonnay and the Roses.

Our red wines almost always are better with a bit of careful bottle ageing, especially the reserve tiers. These notes were developed from bottles stored here at the winery under perfect conditions. Your own bottles may not be in the same categories unless they were stored carefully. 1772 Pinot Noir  1111111111133 Lily Gil Pinot Noir       64 3 332 Marley Anne Pinot Noir       64  3332 Pommard Pinot Noir           3  2 Aethereal Pinot Noir            332 Beyond Pinot Noir       34    32 569 Chardonnay        54 6332 Pure No Oak Chardonnay            432 No Oak Chardonnay    77555556432 1772 Syrah    554443  322 Salaal/Rhone Blend    55 44    22 Grenache Noir     1 4  4  22 Petite Sirah    5343333 332 Sauvignon Blanc 1   7571575533 Viognier     1 55554 33 Grenache Blanc         1  111

Legacy/Dessert Wine      1   1  32 Cabernet Sauvignon       33  3322 Res. Cabernet Sauvignon       13    22 Merlot   1 7     3322 Res. Merlot           1 22We hear a lot about the perils of consuming food from China—and very little about the food we send to China. Yet we export five times more chow to China than we import from it (see chart above). No doubt, China has undergone a full-on food-production miracle over the past generation, but there's zero chance that its farms will emerge as a global exporting powerhouse, as its vaunted electronics factories have done. As this 2013 UN report notes, China's total farm output has tripled since 1978. But it has to feed nearly a fifth of the globe's people on just 8 percent of its arable land. Meanwhile, nearly 20 percent of China's farmland has been polluted by runoff from industrial waste and/or excessive agrichemicals, its government recently acknowledged. On top of that, the country's water resources are extremely limited.

Nevertheless, China is a major supplier of some high-profile items in our grocery stores and restaurants. Overall, though, China is a relatively minor source of food for the US—we import much more from both Mexico and Canada. The much bigger story is rocketing exports. China overtook Mexico as the country that sucks in the most US food in 2012. We export more than $25 billion worth of food per year to China, as the chart at the top shows—an amount nearly equal to total annual food expenditures in the state of Ohio. The main driver: China's rapid switch to a US-style meat-rich diet. China taps US farms to feed its fast-growing meat habit in two ways. First, it directly imports it. Pork exports to China have surged over the past decade. China is also a large importer of beef on the global market (mainly from Australia), but it has banned US product since 2003, over a mad-cow disease scare. With its beef demand soaring, though, it recently signaled it might lift the beef ban as early as July.

As for chicken, China imports a huge amount from the US; and it has also invited US agribusiness giants Tyson and Cargill to plunk down chicken farms on domestic soil. These factory-scale facilities need a steady supply of feed to keep humming—and that's where we get to the second way China looks to the US for its meat supply: by importing lots and lots of livestock feed, namely, corn, soybeans, and alfalfa (fed as hay to cows). Chinese consumers are also demonstrating a surging appetite for another protein-rich US product: nuts, almost all of which are grown in California. And, perhaps to help wash down all of that meat, there's a growing thirst for another California-centric luxury product, wine. These final charts, drawn from recent USDA projections, suggest that China's love affair with meat will continue. Meanwhile, its appetite for nuts shows no sign of abating. For the US, these trends no doubt mean a windfall for the agribusiness companies that dominate meat, grain, and nut production.