Drinking and appreciating a glass of red with dinner can be an excellent means to relax after a stressful day. Wine consumption can provide some health advantages, such as boosting your HDL (good) cholesterol and also reducing your predisposition of cardiovascular disease. However, excessive alcohol also piles on empty calories, which can, at some point, cause weight gain, excessive weight, and diabetes.
The trick with alcohol consumption (as with many other things in life) is doing so in moderation. Moderate drinking is defined as roughly 5 ounces of red wine (equivalent to a glass) per day for women and 2 for men.
Which one has fewer calories then? Whites or Reds?
Generally, white wines tend to have fewer calories than reds. Another way to determine whether one wine has lesser calories is by checking the alcohol by volume (ABV) percentage. Ideally, it should be 11% or less. The greater the ABV, the higher the calories content.
Normally, California wines tend to have higher ABV of 13-14% compared to French & Italian wines which are around 10-11%
Calories by the glass
The rule of thumb is about 25 calories per ounce of wine. A typical pour of a glass of wine is about 5 ounces, making it a total of 125 calories per pour. And do not be misled by the term “glass of wine”, 5 ounces actually measures up to a half cup of an actual wine glass.
While you can expect a pour of this amount in restaurants, but you might be pouring far more than this drinking at home.
This image from WebMD sums up how the different wines stack up against each other when it comes to calories.
Calories by the Bottle
A bottle of wine typically has about 25.4 ounces (750ml). Since an ounce of wine has about 25 calories, you can expect a full bottle of wine to contain about 635 calories.
There is little caloric difference between the different grape varietals and wine styles. As mentioned above, wines with higher alcohol content have higher calories. This is due to higher sugar content in wines with higher alcohol volume. To put things into perspective, a gram of alcohol has about seven calories, compared to a gram of carbs, which has only four calories.
Calculating the Calories
The amount of alcohol in wine is measured by the alcohol by volume (ABV), which is a percentage value. The formula used to calculate the calories in wine is:
ABV x Ounces x 1.6 = Calories
Take for example, a five ounce glass of wine that has an ABV of 11%:
11 percent ABV x 6 ounces x 1.6 = 88 calories
So, will wine make you fat?
It depends.
Besides making sure you drink moderately and be conscious of the calories, wine is literally fat-free. The way human biology works is that the calories or sugar consumed would be converted into energy. This energy, if not utilised, would be turned into fats as “conserved energy”.
That is how people get fat. It’s not the wine, but the excessive consumption plus sedentary lifestyle that contributes to one getting fat.
Therefore, moderate alcohol consumption of one glass (or one pour) per day is important for your health. Liquid calories tend to add up easily compared to food calories as it doesn’t fill you as easily. If you’re not vigilant, you can easily consume as many calories drinking wine as you would eating a huge slice of cheesecake.
Health benefits of red wine
Research has shown that drinking one glass of wine four to six nights per week can help you live longer and increase your ‘good’ (HDL) cholesterol. Moreover, a recent American Journal of Clinical Nutrition publication revealed red wine has antioxidants that benefits your digestive health.
There is a wide variety of bacterias in the gut, some good, some bad. If the good vs bad gut bacteria is imbalanced (in this case higher proportion of bad bacteria), it has been linked to certain health conditions such as, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and weight gain.
Red wine’s red color comes from antioxidants called polyphenols. Polyphenols in red wine can help balance the types of bacteria (in this case higher proportion of good bacteria) in your digestive track, making you healthier and potentially leaner!
So, enjoy that glass of wine!
So, don’t go about worrying too much about it. By keeping the consumption in moderation, you can keep the calories at bay and enjoy the health benefits that come with a glass of wine. Cheers!