7/5/2023 0 Comments Part time healthnut“A sweet, lower alcohol riesling is still delivering a lot of calories.”īut if you can find a dry, light wine, says Atkins, “coming in at say 9 or 10 per cent, or off-dry, then it’s relatively low in alcohol and calories”. If you’re buying a sweet wine with lower alcohol, bear in mind the calories are stacking up in the residual sweetness. “A couple of small glasses of this is not giving you a lot of alcohol and certainly not a lot of sugar.” “And even champagne, as long as you go for Brut and not one of the sweeter styles, you’re getting a dry sparkling that should be 12 per cent or under,” she says. “English sparkling wine and some prosecco and cava are often 11 per cent,” says Atkins. She credits a combination of cooler climate and the riesling grape being able to deliver ripeness and good acidity and balance at those alcohol levels.ĭry sparklers from cool climates are also a good option. While Australian and Alsace ones tend to be up near 12 or 13 per cent, Atkins says, “The Mosel region of Germany makes very elegant rieslings that are often 7 and 10 per cent.” “Riesling is a brilliant grape for naturally low alcohol levels,” says Atkins. The ones that are really low at the 5.5 end tend to be tipples like Italian asti. People don’t realise the massive difference within table wines they can range from as little as 5.5 per cent up to about 15 per cent.” Mainly it’s white and sparkling and I do check the alcohol levels to try and keep the units down,” says Atkins. Prioritising wines with a lower ABV has been a must for Susy Atkins, the Telegraph’s wine columnist, for a long time opting for lighter wines, alongside booze-free evenings. While it means you might be able to drink more and process it faster, that’s not a reason to indulge. “A 20-year-old liver is going to be quicker and more efficient, it’s going to have fewer fatty liver deposits and less stiffening of the tissues, because it’s had to mop up fewer toxins.” “A 20-year-old liver has been through a lot less stress than a 50-year-old liver,” says Dr Amati. While the liver is a remarkable organ, able to increase its size by 40 per cent day and night, it will weary under constant bombardment. It’s about finding what works for you.”īoth men and women should drink less with age. I prefer to have a glass of red wine with lunch. She has a more cautious approach than he does: “I do love a delicious glass of red wine, but I also know if I drink it quite late at night it disrupts my sleep. “It seems a small glass of red wine each day around 5pm is the sweet spot for health benefits,” says Dr Federica Amati, a clinical scientist and nutritionist.ĭr Amati recently helped Prof Tim Spector, who enjoys a glass of red with dinner and has advocated drinking red wine for gut health, with research for his new book, Food For Life. Loneliness has, after all, been called a carcinogen. It is the element of conviviality that is thought to be so powerful. The drink cited in particular is red wine, which is enjoyed by citizens of two “blue zones” (where it is claimed people live longer than average): Ikaria in Greece and Sardinia in Italy.Ĭould it be down to it containing resveratrol, a life-extending polyphenol? Perhaps, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that we wouldn’t be better off having a punnet of berries instead. Sociological and longevity studies do show that a little bit of alcohol is associated with living longer. Let’s get the good news out of the way first. The question therefore is: how, as both a health nut and a wine lover, can I have my glass of fizz and drink it as well? The (few) positives Three Spirit, Seedlip, and their numerous contemporaries, all serve a purpose that mid-week evening or designated-driver dinner, but the full non-alcoholic wagon isn’t my ride. Non-alcoholic spirits I find more tolerable. I’m yet to find a de-alcoholised wine that I can find palatable an experience that pushes optimism off a cliff every time. I am recalcitrant on this topic, as I suspect many of you who also love wine are. In full knowledge of this, I returned from a recent climbing trip to eastern France with seven bottles of burgundy and six bottles of crémant de bourgogne, after Vivino-ing our way around the area.
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