Betaine in wine: answer to the French paradox?
In France, a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol is associated with low coronary artery disease mortality and it may be that drinking wine is protective against ischemic heart disease. Recent studies suggest that high plasma homocysteine concentrations are an independent risk factor for coronary, cerebral and peripheral arterial occlusive diseases. One of several routes for metabolism of homocysteine involves methylation using betaine as the methyl donor. Betaine is often added to less expensive wine when beet sugar is used to increase alcohol content. We found that many commercial wines contain betaine; an average glass of wine contains approximately 3 mg betaine. This small amount is less than the dose used to lower homocysteine in patients with genetic forms of hyperhomocysteinemia, but we do not know whether humans with modest elevations of homocysteine would be influenced by this dose.
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Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-7400, USA.
Zeisel
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D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001622:Betaine / Q000032:analysis / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D014920:Wine
D006710:Homocysteine; D001622:Betaine