Betaine in wine: answer to the French paradox?

In France, a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol is associated with low coronary artery disease mortality and it may be that drinking wine is p rotective against ischemic heart disease. Recent studies suggest that high plasma homocysteine concentrations are an independent risk factor for coron ary, cerebral and peripheral arterial occlusive diseases. One of several ro utes for metabolism of homocysteine involves methylation using betaine as t he methyl donor. Betaine is often added to less expensive wine when beet su gar is used to increase alcohol content. We found that many commercial wine s contain betaine; an average glass of wine contains approximately 3 mg bet aine. This small amount is less than the dose used to lower homocysteine in patients with genetic forms of hyperhomocysteinemia, but we do not know wh ether humans with modest elevations of homocysteine would be influenced by this dose. (C) 1999 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.