Progress towards tackling the obesity epidemic comes from a new study that finds a compound commonly found in red wine boosts the activity of an identified gene that cuts the growth of new fat cells. Scientists from Oregon State University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Ottawa claim the SIRT1 gene can not only growth of fat cells, but also increase the metabolism or use of fat in existing fat cells, an activity helped by resveratrol, a polyphenol and antioxidant found at high levels in grape skins.
