Why You’ll Want to Skip the Boxed Wine This Holiday Season
The ugly, dangerous truth about wine and a holiday mocktail recipe you’ll love
I definitely used to be the girl in the grocery store who would buy all our groceries and then think, “oh some nice little wine tonight sounds good….”
There I go perusing through the wine aisle looking for a good deal. I’m no wine snob, so I didn’t really care about where the wine is from or what the type is, typically, I would look for a wine for about $25-30 dollars that might be on sale for $1 off or if their label looked cool.
Pretty much I was like most North Americans who drank wine for a little buzz, or something to wind down with, and not much else.
Never did it cross my mind that wine could be more than grapes, alcohol, and maybe a little sugar.
As an avid ingredient reader of every product I buy, it never even crossed my mind that there was no ingredient list on wines. Obviously, that lent credence to my thought that it is no more than crushed grapes by Italian toes.
Recently, I’ve started deviating away from alcohol. My partner and I are not big restaurant goers and we’re frugal spenders, so I stopped buying wine on a whim. In general, even if I do go out, I rarely drink because I’m addicted to feeling optimal and alcohol makes me puffy, inflamed in the face, nauseous, headaches, just things that will distract me from getting things done.
The last time I really hardcore drank was at a wedding where I drank white wine all night. I can’t even put into words the hangover I experienced the next day but it was the worst one I had experienced in a while.
I summed it up to the fact that I drank white wine, so the sugar content must’ve been through the roof and that amount of sugar obviously offsets your blood-glucose and dehydrates you so I thought it all made sense.
Little did I know that sugar is the least of the issues found in commercial wine, whether it’s cheap or expensive, price has no power over what these winemakers have been HIDING in the wine you drink.
I’m always on the hunt for endocrine disruptors (substances that imbalance our hormones leading to disease etc.) in our environment and in companies, and in terms of substances we ingest, wine was actually near the top of the list.
I never want to fear monger my audience, merely tell a tale of caution and allow you the space to think critically about what you are putting in your body. Consumer mentality has plagued our brains for centuries and strategically has us forgetting to be weary about WHAT we consume.
As I’ve forementioned in previous blogs, luckily for us, scientists and free-thinkers are uncovering a lot of truths about the things we consume. When you’re given all the true information (not the fancy strung together ads displayed across media) you as a consumer can make decisions for yourself freely.
Understanding Additives & Toxins
Additives are the substances added to food that provide it marketability, colour, and quality.
Often, they are used for preservative reasons in processed foods so the product doesn’t get grow bacteria or lose freshness. But they can also be antioxidants to prevent the changing of colours when exposed to oxygen (think cutting an apple open and leaving it on the counter and the inside turning brown) or stabilizers as a thickening agent.
But not all additives are created equally.
Some are classified acute toxins, environmental hazards, mycotoxins, and ochratoxin A’s (black molds).
The substances classified in these categories are determined by the NIH (National Institute of Health) as well as the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).
Toxic additives can be found in household cleaners, car fuels, paint, and your store bought wine.
The Dirty Dark Secrets of the Wine Business
There are 76 additives approved by the FDA to use in wine making.
Like we discussed before, not all additives are created equal, so let’s look at the ones that will get your attention.
- Acetaldehyde
- Dimethyl Dicarbonate
- Aspergillus niger (fungus, black mold)
- Rhizopus
- Ammonium Phosphate
- Copper Sulfate
- Formic Acids
- Potassium Metabisulfite
- Sulfur Dioxide
Two of these additives in wine are classified by the NIH as acute toxins.
Acute toxins are defined as potentially having adverse health effects or death in a consumer on a single dose or multiple doses within a 24 HR period.
One additive is a classified environmental hazard. Two others are classified myco-toxins and one is a classified ochratoxin A.
Two additives are corrosive (like a drain cleaner) two are classified as flammable, and eight are classified as NIH as irritants.
Mycotoxins can cause a serious health threat to humans and livestock: range from acute poisoning, immune deficiencies and cancer.
Whether ALL of these additives are actually present in your wine, we won’t ever really know, because it’s not required to have an ingredients label on your wine bottle or box.
How could that be? The grape juice you buy at the grocery store has to have an ingredients list, why is your wine any different?
It’s because the wine industry spent millions of dollars in lobby money in Washington DC to keep contents labelling and nutritional information off of wine. This ensures they can keep their practices private, and use short cuts in production to keep value high and costs low.
Like most big corporations, it’s all about money and greed.
1935-1945 was the last time wine regulation laws were updated. 20 years ago, the Science and Public Interest filed a petition against the federal government to disclose these ingredients on wines. No action has ever been taken and just last week they filed a lawsuit.
Understanding Ochratoxins:
In terms of danger to human health, ochratoxins are high up on that list. These black molds can grow on the grapes themselves before being processed into wine, which is how they seep into that bottle.
You might be thinking that that is easy to test for, and can be efficiently removed before sale, and that’s what Europeans believe too which is why in Europe, it is required to test for ochratoxins before they make it to market.
In the USA, it is not.
Not only are ochratoxins on the approved list of additives in wines, they aren’t required to be tested for either.
Animal Products in Wine:
I never understand when people told me wine wasn’t vegan.
I remember someone telling me it was because flies could get mixed into the wine making process and technically if you’re a vegan you shouldn’t eat flies either.
Although I kind’ve agreed with the ethos, I still consumed wine.
But I was very wrong, it’s not flies in the wine, but liver, stomach, and pancreas.
More specifically 7 animal products are approved by the FDA to be used in wines.
These include: cow liver, pig stomach, pig pancreas, fish bladder, pig liver, egg whites, and fish liver.
You might be thinking why these could ever be needed to be used in wine?
Well they’re used for a process called fining. Fining is how you bind and remove unwanted substances. Often that is the “earthiness” of the wine that they want removed. It allows the wine to have clarity.
That’s why natural wines have a slight cloudiness – it still has particles from the wine making process which actually is what makes them healthier.
Conclusion:
If you care about what you eat, you should care even more about the wine you’re drinking because at any given time you could be consuming these dangerous substances.
You don’t have to give up drinking wine, but if you’re going to drink be a conscious consumer.
Opt for a natural, organic, sugar-free wine that can be easily found at your local Whole Foods or local health store.
Dry Farm Wines is a particularly popular natural wine making company whose ethos is to expose the wine industry for it’s greed and make the world a cleaner, healthier place.
Other brands I found include:
- Absentee Winery
- Ca’ De Noci
- Micro Bio
- Wild Arc Farms
Continue to be an advocate for your health 🤍
Holiday Pom-Mint Ginger Mocktail
I couldn’t find a mocktail online I loved, so I made my own!
I wanted it to be festive, but provided health benefits!
After all, you are most likely indulging (as you should be) during give the holidays, so why not mix in a little fun mocktail to counter the increase in unhealthy foods this season.
This mocktail also includes ginger and pomegranate which are great immune boosters during the holidays 🎅
Ingredients:
1 cup of pomegranata juice
1 tsp mint extract
1 ginger shot (about 1/3 a cup)
1/2 cup club soda/ sparkling water
handful of fresh cranberries (optional)
sprig of fresh mint (optional)
Recipe:
Add all the ingredients into a festive glass, give a little mix. Add the optional ingredients in last to look festive.