ARS researchers Nancy Keim and Wally Yokoyama are looking to turn wine waste – mainly pomace or what the researchers call marcs – into healthy food products that end up in our shopping carts.
Keim is studying the health benefits of combinations of chardonnay grape pomace and chardonnay grape extract. As expected, the enriched flour is high in fiber and has a lot of bioactive material, which means it will react favorably with organs, tissues, or cells in the human body. How this material interacts with the gut microbiome could be key to seeing these nutrients translate into actual health benefits.
While Keim is looking at the health benefits of white grape pomace, Yokoyama is studying the health benefits of waste from red wine grapes. Red wine grapes are high in polyphenols, which are compounds found in plants that act as antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory properties. Polyphenols have been linked to lowering cholesterol and protecting against certain diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. But Yokoyama is studying whether polyphenols from red grapes can reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia.
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