Salud!

De la editorial del WSJ:

Ponce de Pinot Noir

November 2, 2006

Milton Friedman taught us that there's no free lunch, but it turns out he may have been wrong -- at least biologically speaking. Scientists have discovered that a substance found in red wine protects mice from obesity and the effects of aging, and could perhaps do the same for humans. Talk about making our day.

The substance, resveratrol, is found in red wine, grape skins and other plants. Scientists say it has increased the life span of every organism they have tested it on. While mice are the only mammals tested so far, the researchers who've studied it are so convinced of its powers that some of them say they are taking the stuff themselves as a nutritional supplement that can be purchased commercially.

Human beings have been searching for the fountain of youth since long before Ponce de Leon, but we doubt even the cheeriest optimist thought it'd be found in a glass of pinot noir. Life just doesn't work this way, as conservatives in particular appreciate. We'd also point out that the tested mice were stuffed with more resveratrol than even the most ardent oenophile could consume -- much as were the mice who supposedly proved human vulnerability to such things as the red-dye in Maraschino cherries.

Could this be our revenge on the environmental movement? Come to think of it, this may also be the answer to the famous (and we always thought existential) question of why French women are so thin, or why the French have fewer heart attacks than Americans. On the other hand, it's still not enough to make us drink merlot.