As part of my ongoing discussion about how to get through the holidays without doing undue damage to your health, let’s talk about wine!
Because drinking wine can be a festive and enjoyable part of the holiday season (if you have a healthy relationship with alcohol), and it can also have many health benefits (especially red wine), when consumed in moderation.
The Good
Some of wine’s top benefits include:
Rich in antioxidants
Red wine is full of health-enhancing anti-oxidants, particularly resveratrol. Anti-oxidants are substances that can slow aging by protecting our cells from free radical damage. (Free radicals are destructive compounds that contribute to the development of cancer, heart disease, stroke, and more.)
Improves cholesterol profile
Studies have shown that red wine can improve HDL (“good”) cholesterol while lowering LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels.
Good for heart health
Not only does red wine help improve your cholesterol profile, but it also helps keeps your heart healthy. Polyphenols, a certain type of antioxidant present in red wines, prevent unwanted clotting and help keep the blood vessels flexible.
Regulates blood sugar
Numerous studies have consistently shown that participants who consume resveratrol daily have better blood glucose control, better A1c’s, and reduced insulin resistance (the underlying cause of Type 2 Diabetes) than those who do not.
Reduces the risk of cancer
Regular and moderate consumption of red wine can effectively reduce the risk of various types of cancers. Resveratrol has been shown in various studies to have in vitro cytotoxic effects against a large range of human tumor cells, including myeloid and lymphoid cancer cells, and breast, skin, cervix, ovary, stomach, prostate, colon, liver, pancreas, and thyroid carcinoma cells. Resveratrol affects a variety of cancer stages from initiation and promotion to progression by affecting many of the signaling pathways that control cancer cell growth and division, inflammation, apoptosis, metastasis, and angiogenesis.
Reduces Alzheimer’s risk
Concerned about your risk of developing Alzheimer’s? According to research, red wine helps to inhibits the formation of the beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s.
Keeps you slim
Moderate red wine consumption can also help keep your weight (and more importantly, your amount of body fat) in check. A chemical compound in red wine called piceatannol is a strongly anti-adipogenic compound, meaning that it blocks fat cells from forming and growing. It is especially good at suppressing visceral fat cells, which become the most dangerous type of body fat.
Improves mood
Research indicates that low to moderate alcohol consumption (including wine) is associated with a lowered risk of depression, and that red wine in particular – again because of resveratrol – has anti-stress effects and can actually help alleviate depression and anxiety.
Improves digestion
The anti-bacterial nature of red wines has proven useful for treating stomach irritations and other digestive disorders. For instance, red wine has been used to successfully treat gastritis and Helicobacter pylori infections (h. pylori is a bacterium in the stomach that causes stomach ulcers), as a healthier alternative to the use of antibiotics.
The Bad
But wine can also cause all sorts of misery – headaches, brain fog, disturbed sleep and mood, hot flashes, and more.
Many people believe that it’s the sulfites in wine that are to blame for these unpleasant side effects of wine consumption. And that’s often true, but there’s also a lot more to this picture.
You see, modern wines are typically produced in ways that fill them with unhealthy substances – even many organic wines! – which can make drinking wine no fun. And most of these substances are not required to be disclosed on wine labels, so you might never know what’s in there.
What is in there?
First, in non-organic wines (ie. most wines), the grapes are heavily sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides (which all get into the grapes and the wine).
In addition, heavy machinery is used to tend and harvest the grapes, contributing to air and water pollution (which get into the grapes and the wine).
Then, to maximize yield, vineyards are typically heavily irrigated to pump the grapes full of water, which raises their sugar and alcohol content (making them less healthy).
And finally, heavy doses of sulfites are used to sterilize the wines and keep a consistent, shelf-stable product.
The Ugly
But wait, there’s more.
Mass-produced wines are also filled with additives to heavily control the fermentation process, the viscosity of the wines, and the flavor. There are over 70 different additives used in winemaking, including thickeners, dyes, flavor agents, and preservatives.
And it’s these additives – which do not have to be disclosed on wine labels, and are in most organic as well as non-organic wines – that often cause people the unpleasant side effects that they associate with wine drinking.
So now you understand why sometime even organic wines can make you feel lousy and want to swear off wine altogether, forever.
The Alternative
Happily, you have healthier options, so you can have your wine and enjoy it too! They’re called natural wines, and they are made without agricultural chemicals, industrial machinery, over-irrigation, or the use of unhealthy additives.
And these truly great quality wines don’t usually cause unpleasant side effects like other wines do.
However, because they’re made by small scale wine farmers (vigneron) in small quantities, they are very hard to find in the USA. Most natural wine vigneron are in Europe, growing grapes and making wine like their ancestors did.
Enter Dry Farm Wines. The premier global purveyor of natural wines, Dry Farm Wines hand-selects excellent quality, delicious, healthy wines from natural wine farmers around the world, and makes them available to us here in the USA.
Founded by Todd White, a serial entrepreneur, low carb Paleo enthusiast, and wine connoisseur, Dry Farm Wines developed a rigorous set of criteria to find the highest quality wines that were good for the planet and for the human body. There are only a few hundred wine growers in the world who meet these exacting standards, which include:
- Organically farmed. No pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, or other harmful agricultural chemicals
- No industrial additives. No thickeners, dyes, or taste modifiers
- No sugar. All wines contain less than 1g/L of total sugar
- Lower alcohol. All wines are less than 12.5% alcohol (wines in the US can be as high as 23%)
- Lower sulfites. All wines contain less than 75 parts per million sulfur (US standards allow up to 350 ppm)
- Only wild yeasts. No lab made or GMO yeasts
- No irrigation. No manmade water sources used, only natural rainfall (hence the name, Dry Farm Wines). This makes the wines much lower in sugar and better for people and the environment. In fact, all wines from Dry Farm Wines are low carb and Keto-friendly, and average just 2 grams of carbs (sugars) per glass, whereas most US wines contain 4-5 grams.
Every wine offered by Dry Farm Wines is lab-tested by a third party enologist to ensure it meets all of the above standards.
You can immediately taste the difference: the wines from Dry Farm Wines are delicious, vibrant, fresh, and easy to drink. They are full of life, with none of the unpleasant after-effects that most other wines have. So you can enjoy your wine, and reap all the health benefits I talked about above, without any of the downsides you may have experienced from other wines.
So if you drink wine, you might want to give Dry Farm Wines a try this holiday season! They have whites, rosés, reds, and sparkling wines, and you can order a box of 3 bottles or 6, one type of wine or mixed, and a one time order or a no-obligations subscription. And all with outstanding customer service and a 100% satisfaction guarantee.
I’ve been getting my wines from Dry Farm Wines for many years now, and they are always a delicious treat with no bad side effects. They make great gifts too.
Dry Farm Wines is offering you, my readers, a bottle for just $0.01 with your first order. Go to dryfarmwines.com/sunflower.
Check it out, and cheers to your future festivities!
*Note: Commissions may be earned from purchases made using the links above.
