A diet for the heart

 
Published: Monday 31 October 1994

Chemists have confirmed that the Mediterranean cuisine's 2 most important ingredients - garlic and red wine - apparently have a beneficial effect on the heart (Science, Vol 265, No 5178).

Andrew Waterhouse of the University of California, Davis, has isolated from red wine a chemical called catechin that is believed to keep a check on the level of cholesterol.

And Erik Block of the State University of New York, Albany, found in garlic traces of several selenium compounds that are known to reduce atherosclerosis - thickening of the walls of arteries - in animals and blood lipids (a group of fats) in humans.

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