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  • 2017-01-04 (xsd:date)
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  • Grape Juice Prevents Stomach Flu? (en)
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  • A common home remedy posted on various parenting webs ites states that grape juice can act as a preventative tool against a viral infection in your stomach should you or a family member be exposed to someone with a contagious viral stomach infection. The most commonly shared version of this claim comes from the web site Must Have Mom, which suggests two mechanisms comprise these supposedly preventative properties of grape juice: the regulation of pH and the presence of antiviral chemicals: The pH mechanism is almost certainly bunk. The two main viral causes for gastroenteritis are the norovirus and rotavirus, both of which enter the body through the mouth and infect either the stomach or (more commonly) the intestines. Any pH influence that grape juice may or may not have on the stomach or intestines pales in comparison to the wildly varied pHs the virus would have already survived on its course to one's gut. The antiviral chemical mechanism may have a bit more to it, but the the science behind is not exactly a settled issue. In the late 1970s, a study utilizing cell cultures seemed to demonstrate that grape juice had the ability to inhibit or reduce the infectability of various viruses. This process was attributed to a class of chemicals called polyphenols found in high concentrations in the skin of grapes, as reported in a 1977 Science News article: The authors cautioned, however, that the results were not sufficient to make the claim that the discussed properties of grapes were relevant to the prevention of disease in humans: The problem is that scientists do not know the specific mechanism that would initiate grape compounds’ antiviral properties, and therefore we still do not know if the conditions utilized in vitro would be at all relevant in humans. This issue was covered in a skeptical rebuttal to the work of Konowalchuk and Speirs in a 1979 paper published by the Journal of Food Protection, in which researchers observed that the antiviral effects of grape compounds seemed to be temporary and that viruses would likely be reactivated in the body: A more recent 2010 review of the beneficial properties of grapes published in the journal Nutrition Reviews didn’t rule out the idea of grape products as preventatives, but it made clear that the science on the topic hasn’t progressed much since the 1970s: As mentioned in this same review, mounting evidence does suggest myriad other potential health benefits from compounds found in grapes: Grapes' viability as a viral prophylactic, however, has yet to be rigorously tested and demonstrated. (en)
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