It's long been a mystery why the French, who eat a diet high in calories and fat, typically live longer and healthier lives than Americans -- now we know it may be that they drink so much wine that's the answer.

This fact isn't coincidental. Resveratrol is the compound that seems to be the solution to the mystery. This is a compound that a handful of plants produce in the skins of their fruit to fight off bacterial and parasitic fungal infections, and it works by being a powerful anti-oxidant.

The only problem with resveratrol as the answer to the French Paradox is that the French diet doesn't seem to contain enough of it to be clinically significant.

Almost no one will deny that when resveratrol has been tested in the lab, it produced benefits in nearly every instance. The lucky mice who were given resveratrol lived longer, but that's just one part of it. They also had more energy and more lean muscle than their counterparts.

But hold on, there's more...

Mice with diabetes who took resveratrol wound up with blood glucose levels that were very close to normal afterwards.

No one was willing to go so far as to claim they had found a cure for diabetes, but those results were so shocking that they decide to really start testing this oh humans.

And now the internet is getting into the mix. You've probably read the reports written with breathless enthusiasm, touting resveratrol as the wonder drug of the new millennium.

Is all this coverage deserved?

It might. However, for any one particular supplement to live up to the promises being made about resveratrol would be pretty darn hard. The mythical fountain of youth, as most people know, doesn't really exist.

But perhaps, if these claims are even half right, resveratrol may turn out to be pretty darn close.

It'll only take a minute or two, so I definitely think it's worth checking out. I'm sure you know, but it bears repeating, that resveratrol, like other supplements, are not subject to drug purity statutes because they're classified as "nutritional supplements."

When you buy resveratrol, just like when you buy any supplement, you have to be a little careful. It takes time and effort to get resveratrol because it all has to be harvested from plants -- there's no way to synthesize it yet. Which means that resveratrol supplements tend to vary in quality, along with their price.

Before you ask, trying to get nutritionally and clinically significant amounts of resveratrol from your food sources is almost impossible - the most concentrated form of resveratrol found in a typical diet is in dark red wine, and you'd have to drink about 3 liters a day of the stuff to get the comparable dose fed to lab mice.

Supplements are really the only way to get enough. But how do you choose the right resveratrol supplements in the first place?

What you should look for in a resveratrol supplier is something that doesn't contain a lot of unnecessary fillers. Store your resveratrol supplements in proper conditions, because they can break down if kept in intense heat or very bright light.

The very first thing I would recommend is to check out the resveratrol supplements reviews that I link to below, where you'll find constantly updated reviews.

You should also check out the quick videos they have -- there are some important directions for how to get free samples of resveratrol. This is really valuable information. So it's definitely worth a couple minutes to check out, and could save you significant amounts of money over the old "trial and error" method.

Just to sum up, whichever resveratrol supplements you choose to take, understand that it's only a part of a health maintenance system. Excerise, a health diet and some attention to your emotional health are still important.

A pill won't undo all of the damage we do to our bodies by itself, but it the lab tests are to be believed, it can seriously cut down on the time needed for these changes to have a positive effect.