Finding a better Wine - Dry Farmed Natural Wines
Nov 13, 2018
Hello. Welcome to our blog. I am Andy. And this time, I am running solo without Minna. Minna and I have many things in common. Heck, we even share the same birthday, just so that we won’t ever forget each other’s birthdays. But there is one thing that is vastly different between us. And that, is alcohol.
The way I see it, there are 2 types of people. The type who likes to drink alcohol, and the type who doesn’t. I am a social drinker and I do enjoy drinking amongst a bunch of friends, but Minna rarely drinks. She has, in her DNA, an alcohol flush reaction, meaning that she would turn beet red even after just a few tiny sips of wine. And according to her, alcohol also makes her itchy and uncomfortable. She more or less stays away from drinking altogether.
But I do enjoy a glass of wine every now and then, and there are a lot of debate over whether red wine is good for your health or not. Some of the health benefit claims include:
- Boost Heart Health
- Improve Cholesterol
- Fight free radical damage
- Boost immune system
- Help manage diabetes
- Help prevent Alzheimer’s
- Fight obesity and weight gain
Sounds pretty awesome right?
What makes red wine so special is that red wine is loaded with antioxidants, particularly, flavonoids such as quercetin and resveratrol.
These two antioxidants boost many of the body’s processes, especially heart health.
What is the benefit of having these powerful antioxidants?
Well, all chronic diseases stem from inflammation, which is caused by oxidation of cells, so anything that fights free radical damage and lowers Inflammation is a good thing for your health.
Both resveratrol and quercetin helps fight free radical damage, slows the effects of aging and reduces inflammation.
Resveratrol helps boost heart health through better blood circulation, fights oxidative stress, boost your immune system, slows down your aging and promotes mental health and preventing Alzheimer’s.
Quercetin helps with allergies, raises good HDL cholesterol, helps prevent atherosclerosis, which is the hardening of the arteries, fights infections, stabilizes blood sugar and boost physical performance.
But before you start drinking bottles of red wine, all these health benefits happen only if you drink in moderation. Moderation doesn’t mean you drink until you are almost completely drunk. Drinking in moderation means no more than two 5-oz glasses per night for men and no more than one glass a day for women. Sorry Ladies, it’s not a contest…
Where there are Pros, there must be Cons.
The antioxidants in red wine may have some health benefits, but there are also downsides to drinking too much alcohol, even red wine.
Alcohol is a powerful neurotoxin that can poison your brain and damage your liver and other organs.
Almost all wines that you consume can have up to 76 additives added to them. The additives serve as aroma enhancers, stabilizers, preservatives and clarifying agents for the wine. If you are interested in finding out what these additives are, here’s a link that contains all 76 additives that are actually approved by FDA to put into wines.
Just a word of caution. Approved by FDA doesn’t mean they are good for your health. It pretty much just means it won’t kill you in the short term...
Some examples of these additives are sulphur dioxide, or sulfites, which is used to kill yeast and bacteria to disinfect wine.
Sulphur dioxide may cause reactions like dermatitis, asthmatic reactions, diarrhea and abdominal pains.
Don’t buy lower priced, fortified wines as they may have little or no nutritional value.
Red wine is also generally high in calories. I have friends that eat less food so that they can save calories just so they can drink wine!
On average, a 5-ounce glass of red wine has about 125-150 calories depending on alcohol content in the wine.
Wines in generally are not Carb-free or Sugar free because they may have left-over sugar when it was treated with sulfites, which kills the yeast early and sometimes wineries may even add sugar back into wine to achieve a sweeter palate.
So, I have been struggling with this dilemma about drinking red wine for a long time. Until I found these special wines.
What is so special about these wines that we ordered?
If you have been following us lately, you’d know that we have modified our daily diet to be mainly a Ketotarian diet. We choose not to go on a full ketogenic diet because there are specific foods that are allowed on a Keto diet that aren’t necessarily healthy.
Our Ketotarian diet is high in fiber and antioxidants with no processed carbohydrates. Our Diet is mostly plant based, including healthy fats and lean proteins. Every now and then we’d throw in a nice piece of steak just because we do enjoy a nice piece of grass-fed steak once I a while.
We consider ourselves biohackers, and we are constantly looking for ways to get more health benefits from our foods, so naturally we wanted to source out wines with the benefits and less of the downsides!
Almost every Sunday, we show up at our local farmers market to source out locally grown produce that are in season. We prefer to eat organic fruits and vegetables whenever possible. And even comparing organics to organics, the produce that we can buy from farmers markets are just fresher and more vibrant than something that we can find from Whole Foods. It’s like you can see and feel the love and care that a small family farm puts into their produce. Larger conventional organic Farms may grow their foods organically but may still use quite a few approved chemicals to fertilize and to control pests.
We usually don’t see wine at farmers markets, so we have to look elsewhere to find clean, natural wines. And we believe we have just found the best wines that you can buy based on how they are made.
The red wines that we bought are all natural, meaning there are no additives.
Remember the list of 76 approved chemicals that most wineries use. Who knows what type of effects these additives do to your body!
None of these natural wines use any of these chemicals. These wines are so special because only around .1% of all winemakers in the world are natural winemakers.
They also use wild native yeast for full fermentation which requires a lot more care and produces much smaller volume, since they are more finicky with the conditions.
Conventional wineries use GMO yeast that can be used to make big batches and is more tolerant to different conditions. Conventional wineries also use sulfites to Kill the GMO yeast and any other bacteria to sterilize the wine for better shelf life. In doing so, the yeast does not get fully fermented and has sugars left in the wine. Not all bacteria are bad, some are actually quite beneficial to our gut, but the sulfites kill all bacteria before wine is bottled.
These natural wines that we bought do not use sulfites and therefore they are fully fermented. And, these natural wines are truly alive with good bacteria.
What does that mean? Wine is made by adding yeast to grape juice. Then, the yeast eats the sugar, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide as byproducts. In a full fermentation, the yeast eats all the sugar and dies, leaving the wine essentially SUGAR free.
Did you catch that, these wines are Sugar Free!
Since we are Ketotarian, we try to avoid all processed foods and anything with sugars.
These wines fit our diet perfectly because they are essentially sugar free. And we have tested our blood sugar before and after without seeing any spikes!
Another benefit of being sugar free is they are lower in alcohol and that they have less calories. Our natural wines have only about 90 to 105 calories per 5 oz pour compared to conventional wines which have 125 to 150 calories per 5 oz depending on alcohol content.
And did we mention that they are lower in alcohol? Our natural wines have about 10-12.5% as opposed to conventional wines which normally has up to 15% alcohol!
Less alcohol content means less chance of Hangover the next day!
Alcohol is not your friend. Too much alcohol can damage your internal organs, so micro-dosing is the key to avoiding any of the negative side effects of consuming too much alcohol.
And these wines are dry farmed. What does that mean?
Dry Farming means there was no irrigation used to grow the grapes. This sustainable farming practice is used all over the world. Without sprinklers or water pipes, the vines are stressed in the best way possible. They grow deeper into the soil, typically up to 50 to 60 feet compared to a typical American irrigated grapevine vineyardwhich has a root ball about 2-3′ deep and 2-3′ wide.
This allows the dry farmed vineyards to draw more vital nutrients and minerals from their soil. Research has shown dry farming produces an environmental trigger in the grape’s DNA to express genes that result in higher polyphenol levels in the wine. Which is a good thing.
Carb free, sugar free and hang over free wine with all the benefits of regular red wine and none of the drawbacks?
I can’t wait to share this with our friends over the coming holidays!
Till Next time, Love what you live and Live what you love!
We believe that healthy relationships start with health and we help couples achieve total success in health and in relationships through nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle. If you know someone who can benefit from this blog, share with them. Let them know that you care about them. And of course, leave us any comments below. We love to hear from you.
PS: Our ebook ‘Gut Matters’ goes deeper into the issue of our gut and the action steps that we can take to repair our gut and bring our bodies back to an optimal, healthy state.
This ebook is free for you to download and all you have to do is follow the link below and we will send you a copy.
If you like this video, make sure you share this with your friends using the Facebook link below. And we’d love to see your comments as well. Just go ahead and leave us a quick note below so we know whether you like this blog or not.
Follow us
youtube at https://www.youtube.com/thefoolishcouplenewark
Podcast at https://thevalentinecode.podbean.com
We are not medical doctors. This blog is not intended to diagnose medical condition, or replace your health care provider. The contents of this blog are for informational purposes only. Statements on this website have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Always consult your personal physician before starting any fitness or exercise program or changing dietary habits. The content of this site is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is not a substitute for a medical exam, nor does it replace the need for services or counsel provided by medical professionals. However, we do hope to inspire you to become healthier, more self sufficient, and more aware of options.
