04/02/07 Grape Skins and Skin Cancer

Like most Americans in my vintage the majority of my summers as a kid were spent in the sun, for my family it was boating and my folks have already begun to pay for years of dark tans by having small skin cancers removed. I know I'll be right behind them due to an early obsession with tanning yet the results of a new study regarding skin cancer prove encouraging, especially in light of the fact I have enjoyed more than my share of grapes in the form of red wine over the years. Research from the University of Alabama suggests that the consumption of grape seeds could help prevent skin cancers. Two groups of hairless mice were exposed to UV rays, those feed a supplement of grape seeds called GSP's had 65 percent fewer tumors then mice in the control group. Since our obsession with tans now accounts for more than one million new melanoma and non-melanomas skin cancers each year grape seeds could prove quite the skin cancer breakthrough. If all the sediment I see at the bottom of glass of red wine glass contains some GSP I have been pleasantly protecting my skin cells.