How healthy is wine?

Who doesn’t like a glass or two of wine? Over 330 million cases of wine is purchased yearly in America and the average person consumes 267oz yearly. White wine, specifically Chardonnay, is the favorite just beating out Cabernet by a slim margin. But how healthy is wine for your diet, skin, allergies and overall health?

If you’re watching your diet, wine is high in calories and you need to consider that before guzzling away. The average glass of wine has around 125 calories, 3.5 grams of sugar and 5 grams of carbs. So, one or two glasses are fine but more than that and you are blowing your calorie intake for the day.

Wine can both aid and age your skin depending on the amount consumed.  Red wine contains Flavonoids, antioxidants and Resveratrol. Resveratrol comes from grapes and works it’s magic by not allowing the telomere (ends of DNA strand) to shorten, thus causing the aging process. However, consuming too much wine/alcohol can have the reverse affect. For example it you look at a heavy drinker’s skin they tend to be blotchy, red and dehydrated. Unfortunately for me and many people, wine can cause allergies. Many people are allergic or become allergic to tannins, sulfites and histamines. All of these can cause hives, redness, itching or congestion. Personally red wine is worse that white for me, but neither make me feel great, so I am trying to stay away, it’s so hard!

Red wine tends to be a tiny bit healthier than white wine. Remember anything in nature that is dark in the colors blue, red and green is beneficial for our health. Think blueberries, spinach and red wine. Red wine is also particularly good for the ‘good cholesterol‘. Red wine is considered heart healthy! So the moral of the story is, if you don’t have allergies to wine-drink up, in moderation of course…….just look at the Italians!