We found it at a health food store. “Resveratrox Age Defying Soft Chews” it said, “Powered by Resveratrol from Red Wine Grape Skin.” It went on to claim that each chew (a square of soft candy) contained as much resveratrol as 10 bottles of wine.
Cool. All the resveratrol, none of the buzz. Or, as the back of the package claimed, “All the benefits of Red Wine without the alcohol!!!!“
We picked up a packet.Perhaps the excess of exclamation points should have made us cautious.
A careful read of the ingredients list was puzzling. It made no mention of red wine or grape skins. Instead, it listed:
1. Corn syrup (a sweetener, basically sugar)
2. Sugar (!)
3. Evaporated apple flakes (whatever those might be)
4. Palm oil or palm kernel oil (not exactly a health food!)
5. Color added (mysterious…)
6. Natural flavors (also mysterious)
7. Citric Acid (the sourness found in things like lemon juice)
8. Mono & diglycerides (fats/ emulsifiers)
9. Lecithin (also an emulsifier)
10. Salt
11. Sucralose (the ingredient of Splenda, the artificial sweetener)
So apparently the only thing this chew contained was dried apples crushed with palm-oil and emulsifiers, sweeteners, and preservatives.
To really benefit from this product you must take the pill form. It does not have all of the fillers and is closer to the real ingredient “Red Wine Skin extract.”
But what real ingredient? It’s only fillers.
The only mention of Red Wine Grape Skin was on the front of the package, not the ingredient list.
It says 25 mg Trans-Resveratrol, which is the active ingredient and compound in red wine. Do you not see that printed clearly above the other ingredients??
It’s true that the front of the package says it has 25 mg of Trans-Resveratrol from red wine grape skins, and the back says so in “Supplement Facts.” But the actual ingredient list (see second picture)it doesn’t list any red wine grape skins – or any Trans-Reservatrol.
If it’s in the Supplement Fact section it’s an ingredient. The other list your referring to is the Inactive Ingredients (ie fillers). Most products like this list the Active Ingredients up top (“Supplement Facts”) and the rest below. It would be illegal for them to promote the 25 mg Trans-Resveratrol if it wasn’t actually in the product. Garden Greens is a reputable company located in the USA, and their stuff is sold at GNC. It’s silly to think they would blatantly lie on their packaging.
Actually, the list is supposed to include all ingredients, listed by weight. (You can read the US FDA rules here.)
I don’t dispute that Garden Greens is a reputable company – I’d love to have them respond to this. Maybe they have an explanation?