Low-calorie wine

Wine is not slimming. The two components that contribute to its calorific value are alcohol and sugar, so the most fattening wines are strong reds from hot countries, plus dessert wines. The least calorific are dry whites and light reds from cool climates. It is by no means the case that white wine is less fattening than red, nor that dry wines are necessarily low in calories. The least calorific wines are bone dry and low in alcohol.

How many calories are in a full serving 5 oz glass of wine?  What does a glass of wine cost you in terms of your diet?  Below is a quick and easy chart to illustrate your dietary cost if you are counting for low calories, low fat or low carbohydrates. Both wine and beers contain trace elements of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, potassium, phosphorous, ash, etc.,  but not in sufficient amounts to consider them into your dietary intake.  Whiskey is devoid of everything other than the food value of the alcohol itself.


The data in the chart below were taken from the USDA website:  http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

ITEM                      RED WINE    WHITE WINE
                              5 OZ           5 OZ
                              147,5 g       147,5 g
Calories                  106             100
Carbonhydrates       2.51 g        1.18 g
Water                     130,54 g     132, 16 g
Alcohol                   13,7 g         13,7 g


 ××× Wine varies greatly in alcoholic content usually from 10% to 14%.  Obviously, the higher the alcohol content the higher the calories.  ×××
The wine calories listed above represent wine of approximately 13% alcohol.
A bottle of wine contains 750 Ml or 25.42 Oz of liquid or approximately five 5 Oz or six 4 Oz servings.
At 20 calories per ounce a full bottle would contain approximately  525 calories.


Wine is nothing more than a mixture of water, alcohol and grape flavors.  The winemaker begins by crushing the grapes and then adding yeast to activate the fermenting process and the yeast converts the sugar and oxygen in the juice into ethyl alcohol.  Water contains no calories, fat or carbohydrates and the grape flavor represents a very small percentage of the total wine.  The sugars in the grapes are gone (being converted into alcohol) so essentially all of the food values you are consuming come from the alcohol and the alcohol alone.

However, how your body metabolizes the wine is another matter.  Discuss that with your physician.

The four sources of energy for your body are fat, protein, carbohydrates and alcohol.  Unlike the other energy sources, alcohol is processed by the liver.  Obviously, this is the reason many alcoholics and heavy drinkers experience liver damage.    A bottle of distilled spirits per day would provide your body with 1,875 calories.  If you add a little food to that number you very quickly rise to a caloric intake where you will start putting on pounds.

So, if you are on a diet, refrain from alcohol.  If you must drink, avoid the high alcohol distilled spirits and the high carbohydrate beers and make it a delicious glass of low carb, low alcohol wine.

Wines for special medical conditions
Diabetics should take care to choose bone-dry wines, for example Champagne, Chablis, Muscadet, Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé, Fino and Manzanilla sherry and most red wines – so long as they are relatively low in alcohol. Wines sold specifically as Diabetic are usually low in both sugar and alcohol.
Many people find that their bodies react badly to either white or red wines. Since red wines contain a much wider range of components than white, the second of these reactions is easier to understand and some think it may reflect red wine's higher histamine content, others that it may have something to do with red wine’s higher charge of phenolics. It is possible that the white wines, which have caused an allergic reaction, are rather higher than most in sulphur and some asthmatics react particularly badly to this common food preservative. Much more research is needed in this area, but the wine trade is generally composed of people who react extremely well to wine and there has therefore been little enthusiasm for this research unfortunately.