Hello, this is Monica Reinagal, and you're listening to episode number 466 of the Nutrition

Diva podcast. Welcome. a decade and there are plenty of nasty coughs and colds going around as well.

Is there anything you can do nutrition-wise to bolster your defenses?

For example, you may have seen the story that went viral last week claiming that drinking wine can keep you from getting the flu.

Alas, this was another example of headline writers run amok.

In fact, after I posted their original headline, which was, quote,

drinking wine will stop you from getting the flu, end quote, as a particularly

egregious example,

the UK's independent updated their headline

to one that's slightly less untrue, but only slightly.

Now it reads, drinking tea and wine could keep flu at bay.

Guess what the study in question did not involve?

Wine.

That's right.

No wine was harmed or even consumed in the course of this particular study.

No tea either for that matter. The researchers were testing the effects of resveratrol,

a compound that's found, yes, in wine and tea, but also in grape juice and blueberries and peanuts and various other foods.

The experiments were being done on mice, and the Resveritrol did not keep the mice from

getting the flu because all of the unfortunate mice in this study already had

the flu thanks to the researchers who intentionally infected them.

But the resveritral treatment did seem to help the mice fight off the infection a little bit better.

This is not the first study to suggest that Resveritrol might be useful

...