Grape Seed Extract

By Bryan Kanner

Another one of my most often recommended supplements is grape seed extract. If you could take a supplement that could help prevent cardiovascular disease and keep your skin youthful and supple… wouldn’t you use it?

If there was a substance that was twenty fold stronger as an antioxidant than vitamin c and could cross the blood/brain barrier to protect brain cells from oxidative stress… Wouldn’t you add it to your supplement list?

Grape seed extract contains a class of bioflavonoids called oligomeric proanthocyanidins (Opc’s). These flavonoids were the cornerstone of research by DR. Jack Masquelier.

The phrase “the French paradox” referred to the excessive fats in the typical French diet and the curiously low level of heart disease. He theorized that these OPC’s in French red wine were the protective element that thwarted the atherogenic process in the arteries.

OPC’s are valuable protectors of the vascular system from the largest arteries to the smallest capillaries. The beauty of adding grape seed extract to your current regimen, is that every new antioxidant you add increases the potential activity of all your antioxidants. This phenomenon is called synergy, and is the reason I recommend many different anti-oxidants. When one nutrient becomes oxidized another will reduce it back to its active state.

I find it amazing that modern agricultural science has managed to create species of grapes without the most nutritious part of the grape… the seed. As a nutritionist if its not in your diet I suggest taking it as a supplement. I usually recommend 100mg a day, as a long-term commitment to cardio-vascular health. By the way, don’t forget to eat right, and exercise!

Take Care, Bryan
House of Nutrition

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Drop me a line at email - Bryan Kanner, BS CNC CNHP is our staff certified nutritionist at the Yonkers, NY office of House of Nutrition.