When it comes to myth, superstition and complete bullshit, there is as much circulating about alcohol as anything else. So, despite constantly hearing whispers about the health benefits of red wine, it’s one of those ‘facts’ we’ve always chosen to half-believe.

Antioxidants – don’t know what they are. Reduced rates of cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and heart disease – surely not. Resveratrol? Is that even a word?

Turns out it’s all true, and more (kinda):

A French study published in Cell reports that mice given resveratrol (at doses equivalent to slamming roughly 8000 bottles per day) become more athletic, as assessed using tiny mouse treadmills. Treated mice can run twice as far, and have reduced heart rates compared to controls.

Actually, a whole history of the popularization of the ‘red wine good for you’ theory is given here. In a surprise twist, from 1992 until now, the theory has traveled the opposite road to most similar hypotheses. Rather than being a solid theory, slowly eroded by science into ridicule, it started is life as the crackpot ravings of drunken Frenchmen and then built up a weight of scientific evidence.

Sniffing Cork: Bench-Top Boozing and the Health Effects of Red Wine [via Vinography]