Flavanols

So what ARE antioxidants? Most reports in the general media will tell you that they're good for you, found in a number of key plant produced consumables (every other week there's a new kind of berry we should be eating more of), prevent cardiac arrest, keep cancer away, are GOOD THINGS to eat and drink.

This is why it is good to have a glass of wine a day, especially red wine, so the "experts" say.

But what exactly ARE they?? What do they LOOK like, especially the beneficial ones? Are there any that aren't beneficial, and where are they found? What exactly do they do, once they're in our bodies, to prevent us from getting heart attacks, cancer, etc.?

This I will tell you, NOBODY KNOWS.

"They" are trying, supposedly to find out...but then, what would you do, handed a grant proposal to fund research into "wine chemistry"? Would you not laugh, make some comment about "obvious alcoholics", and fund some much more "promising" research into a synthetic antiobesity drug or erectile dysfunction (remember, Viagra was originally intended for cardiac treatments, opening up blood flow to specific tissues and having unintended effects upon fortunate clinical trials volunteers)? What if we actually discovered that the aphrodisiacal effects both red wine and chocolate have upon women is based purely on the specific (and DIFFERENT) flavanoids (the wider class of compounds to which flavanols belong) that each respectively contain?

Just a thought. There WILL be more on this, as there IS research that is being done and which NEEDS to be better, and more accurately, reported.