Red wine is the sort of drink that often fills with memories of warm summer evenings spent sipping it along with friends and family. A glass of red wine is sometimes the only thing on the table during a party. Although red wine is enjoyed by many worldwide, how much do they know about the calories in red wine?
Believe it or not, there are calories in red wine, depending on the variety and the brand you choose to buy. Knowing the facts will allow you to make better choices when shopping for wine and other alcoholic beverages.
Most red wine calories come from the amount of alcohol in a single serving. That’s one serving of liquor or spirits, multiplied by the amount of alcohol in a serving. Remember that the calories of red wine depending on the type and the brand you drink.
Best Red Wines
- Bodegas Catena Zapata (Mendoza, Argentina)
- Weingut Huber (Baden, Germany)
- Penfolds (Australia)
- Giuseppe Quintarelli (Veneto, Italy)
- Domaine Etienne Guigal (Rhone, France)
- Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (Burgundy, France)
- Château Lafite Rothschild (Bordeaux, France)
- Screaming Eagle (Napa Valley, USA)
- Sierra Cantabria (Rioja and Toro, Spain)
- Masseto (Tuscany, Italy)
For example, red wine that is straight from the bottle will have fewer calories than one that has been processed. The truth is that even “real” red wine can be counted as an alcoholic beverage depending on where you buy it.
While most people consider red wine calories a small price to pay for the health benefits, they could be overlooking something more critical. Most drinkers rarely realize that drinking an occasional drink can have profound health benefits. Numerous studies point to the health benefits of drinking red wine over coffee, tea, or white distilled beverages.
For example, drinking one to two glasses of red wine each day can help to control weight gain, lower cholesterol levels, raise HDL cholesterol levels, lower harmful cholesterol levels, improve memory and concentration, fight infections, lower blood pressure, increase longevity, and even slow down the aging process. In short, the list of red wine benefits is very long and covers all areas of health improvement.
Can I drink wine and still lose weight?
As you can see, drinking alcohol has calories but so do many other things besides alcohol calories. For example, hundreds of calories are in simple carbs such as bread, rice, and pasta. A diet that is strictly based on “red wine calories” is merely misleading. Red wine has fewer calories than many kinds of white wine. With all of this in mind, you might be surprised to learn that alcohol is even beneficial to weight loss!
Studies have shown that drinking red wines can help you lose weight because it contains antioxidants beneficial to your overall health. In addition to antioxidants, red wines contain compounds called polyphenols. Polyphenols are believed to inhibit the absorption of fat in the digestive system, which allows you to take in fewer calories.
Since it is difficult for most people to eat an entire bottle of red wine, they replace it with fruit juices. Some people even add honey to their fruit juices and get the same amount of antioxidants as if they had drunk the equivalent amount of red wine.
One of the most common claims about red wine calories is that drinking causes a rise in blood pressure and decreases the amount of insulin in the body. This is not true. When you drink red wine, the level of blood sugar rises, but your body does not store more insulin. The body does burn off more fat when you drink the beverage than when you drink any other type.
Red wine calories cause you to gain weight because of the extra calories you burn off translate to weight gain. Therefore, you should always remember to factor in the added caloric value of drinking another alcoholic beverage when you make your claims about how many calories you will lose by drinking a particular brand of dry wine.
Of course, all of the alcohol in your system also causes you to gain weight because it eliminates necessary vitamins and minerals. Most people do not realize an equivalent amount of alcohol calories for each day of your life. Therefore, if you drink four ounces of red wine per day, you burn an estimated 2900 calories per day or about six hundred calories per week.
If you were to drink all of the red wine calories in a day, you would be consuming over one-quarter of a gallon of alcohol, which is about twenty-four ounces of liquor. It is essential to keep in mind that most red wine‘s alcohol content varies from one brand to the next, so always check the label to determine what you are drinking.
If you want to lose weight and maintain your figure, you need to learn about the different types of alcoholic drinks and their corresponding calories. For example, the smallest alcoholic beverages have the least amount of calories, while the highest have the most significant calories. You can find information about the calories in various types of red wine by consulting your local nutritionist’s web site.
If you are overweight or maintaining your current weight, you may want to consider replacing alcohol with one of many healthier alternatives that provide similar nutritional value. Remember that any alcoholic beverage should be consumed in moderation and in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise.