Ever notice the lack of consideration that dieting has for your wine habit? How are you supposed to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle if it completely removes a wine lover’s reason to live? Not to worry, there has been overwhelming evidence pointing to wine as a healthy form of booze when consumed in moderation. Here’s how you can stay healthy and still enjoy wine. The following 7 tips may help you enjoy a healthy diet that includes wine. “If you are already thin and healthy, alcohol intake does not seem to affect weight gain.” referenced from Alcohol Alert, Most wine has anywhere from per glass. If you’d like to find out the specifics on a particular wine, check out the . The interesting thing about wine calories is that our bodies digest alcohol (ethanol) differently than we digest food because it is a toxic substance. Our bodies send excess ethanol into a complex metabolic process involving our liver which eventually releases acetic acid that is secreted (a.k.a. we pee it out) so it doesn’t all get converted to energy.

It’s important to note that everyone’s physiology is different: women, Asians, Native Americans and Inuits secrete less alcohol than Caucasian males. What’s weird is that if you are drinking at a rate higher than you can metabolize alcohol, you are more likely to NOT absorb all its calories. This doesn’t mean you can go out and drink a bottle of wine, it just means that alcohol calories are a little more forgiving than say… ice cream calories. How much wine is too much wine? Heavy drinking is about 3+ drinks for a man and 2+ drinks for a women daily. Do your health a favor and acclimate your body to about half of that as a good example of moderate drinking behavior. Some of the longest lived people on earth drink about this much wine every day. Walking in the early evening will help keep your metabolism up and will also slow down the ‘need to feed’ impulse that we often have at the end of the day. Walking is natural decompression. This habit may help reduce over drinking as well.

Setting your diet up for success means increasing your metabolism. box of pink wine priceWhat’s interesting about wine is that it also increases metabolism for about 70-90 minutes. best type of wine for dietingIt’s important to drink water when you consume wine and liquor to maintain the balance of water in your cells since alcohol is a diuretic. wine in a bag ukYou’ll note that beer is different than wine and causes cells to swell. “Men and women who drink alcohol tend to have a stable body weight over a decade of observation compared with their non-drinking counterparts, whose weight increases” A prospective study of alcohol intake and change in body weight among US adults Drinking wine before you eat has shown to increase appetite when consumed 30 minutes before eating so save your wine for your meal.

If you love to cook and drink at the same time, try splitting your glass of wine into 2 servings of 3 ounces each. Also, having wine on a full stomach will make it so you’ll be less likely to feel the effects and more likely to absorb all of the associated calories. Red wine has shown to have much higher antioxidants than other wines. Pay attention to the alcohol level when purchasing a bottle and attempt to keep it below 13.5% ABV. Find out about the amazing health benefits of red wine. Alcohol behaves similar to carbohydrates in our bodies, so resist drinking too late. You will also be able to have higher quality rest if you stop all eating and drinking for the day around 8 to 8:30pm –that is if you go to sleep around 12am. In order to change our habits, we have to put value around the things we eat. If you spend a little more on your bottle of wine, it will encourage you to enjoy it over a period of several days. You can easily preserve your red or white wine in the fridge with a vacuum pump wine sealer.

Sparkling wines will last up to 4 days with a Champagne stopper. We humans are lazy, so if temptation isn’t close by we are less likely to indulge. If you’re on a strict diet, remove indulgent foods and drinks from your house. By all means, you can still have a drink at night! Why not walk to a neighborhood wine bar and meet a friend? A little wine could actually help you get into the mood. We are not doctors so don’t take our word for it, instead look at the facts: You don’t need that much for the effects; Liu S, Sedula MK, Williamson DF, et al. A prospective study of alcohol intake and change in body weight among US adults. Am J Epidemiol 1994;140:912–20. Lawrence Feinman and Charles S Lieber. Ethanol and lipid metabolism1,2,3. American Society for Clinical Nutrition 1999; Klesges, R. C., et al. Effects of alcohol intake on resting energy expenditure in young women social drinkers. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1994, 59, 805-809. Wine and liquor impedes anti-diuretic hormone in pituitary gland at montana.edu

If you are already thin and healthy, alcohol intake does not affect weight gain: pubs.niaaa.nih.gov Don’t drink before you eat, from Pubmed Frary, Carol D. and Johnson, Rachel K. “Chapter 2: Energy” in Krause’s Food and Nutrition Therapy, 12th ed. 2008. A Specific Red Wine is Linked to Weight Loss Drinking red wine could be beneficial in fighting obesity, but not just any red wine. Which red wine is it? An OSU study found that a specific type of red wine slowed the growth of fat cells and formation of new fat cells in the liver. The finding suggests that consuming red wine grapes (either raw, as juice or wine) could help people manage health problems related to obesity, such as fatty liver. “We are trying to validate the specific contributions of certain foods for health benefits.” Which Red Wine Fights Obesity? One type of wine grape is known to contain weight loss helping ellagic acid. Red Muscadine (aka “Scuppernong”) is a wine grape native to southeastern US and grows primarily in Georgia.

By the way, there are only about 5000 acres of Muscadine grapes in the world. How can I get ellagic acid in my diet? Since there is a lot of hype floating around about this story, we’ve compiled some additional factual points you’ll want to know. Ellagic acid isn’t found in other V. vinifera wine grapes (e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec etc) Ellagic acid is found in oak-aged wines (any type) as ellagitannin. Ellagitannin increases with each year of oak aging Fermentation increases ellagic acid levels in Scuppernong/Muscadine grape juice Ellagic acid is also found in raspberries, blackberries, green tea, oolong tea, walnuts and pecans Ellagic acid prevents the development of cancer cells with 40 mg one cup of raspberries a day (we estimate this to be about one glass of 2 yr new oak aged wine) If you already enjoy one glass of oaked red wine a night, you can delight in knowing that you might not be making poor health choices. However, even though this special acid has incredible health benefits, it hasn’t been determined whether or not the alcohol in wine negates the benefits.

If you have a serious health condition, you might want to avoid alcohol altogether and pick one of the alternatives mentioned above. Special thanks to Neil Shay, whose team at Oregon State University fed muscadine grape extract to overweight mice in order to figure out what dietary choices humans can make to maintain and improve health. “If you’re out food shopping, and if you know a certain kind of fruit is good for a health condition you have, wouldn’t you want to buy that fruit?” Also, thank you to the overweight mice. The Study: “Changes in Ellagic Acid and Other Phenols in Muscadine Grape (Vitis rotundifolia) Juices and Wines during Storage” Metabolites Are Key to Understanding Health Effects of Wine Polyphenolics Original article mention from OSU Extracting Egallitannins and other medicinal phytochemicals Grape and Wine Phenolics: A Primer Estimated ~4,890 acres (2,000 ha) of Muscadine Grapes in the US “Phenolic Wine Antioxidants” by Andrew Waterhouse