Chew On This: Drink even more red wine!

Wine drinkers looking for an excuse for another glass know that resveratrol in red wine is a good source of antioxidants. Now a group of Hebrew University researchers in Jerusalem have discovered that when you pair it with certain foods, beneficial polyphenols can avert the harmful effect of certain molecules that emerge during the digestive process. Chug down a glass of Pinot Noir or other red wine with your juicy steak and the mix of the two in the stomach will prevent the formation of harmful oxidizing toxins released by red meat and other high-fat foods while they're being digested.

The researchers' rats may have had more pleasure than usual working on this particular study. Polyphenols are believed to protect against cancer and heart disease by destroying molecules that can damage cells. No-one knows quite how this works, since the polyphenols don't get into the bloodstream to any significant degree. The study leader believed the answer was that if the polyphenols hit the stomach at the moment when the fats are releasing their noxious compounds they prevented them moving onwards inside the body.

Surely more red wine drinking must take place, purely in the interests of research, of course. If you object to this suggestion, eat a piece of fruit at the end of a meal. They're also stuffed with polyphenols which would operate in the same fashion.