There is a huge calorie savings

This is the big draw for a lot of people, not least me and my ever expanding dad bod. Past a certain age, keeping the weight off is harder and harder. Alcohol is calorie dense so any reduction is a huge plus point.

Wine has around 125 kcal per 5 fl oz (147ml or 1 glass) whereas alcohol free wine has around 25 kcal per glass. That is around an 80% reduction in calorie, switching from alcoholic to alcohol free wine.

A different way to look at it is you can drink 5 times as much alcohol free wine as regular alcoholic wine before clocking up the same number of calories.

If you have 2 glasses of wine, 5 nights a week that works out to be roughly 1230 kcal a week in wine calories alone.

When you consider a pound of fat is about 3600 kcal , you could be putting on 1 lb of fat every 3 weeks with this moderate drinking! The same amount of alcohol free wine in a week would only result in 250 kcal.

That equated to the same calories as mowing your lawn for 40 minutes. It’s easily achievable to be weight neutral by substituting alcoholic wine for alcohol free wine. Dad bod begone.

Safe for pregnant and breastfeeding moms

One of the traditional reasons for not drinking alcohol is being pregnant. All Obstetric and Gynaecology Colleges across the world (UK, USA, Australia) recommend limiting or reducing alcohol intake to zero if possible when pregnant.

Alcohol free wine is safe in pregnancy. It has had its alcohol removed to a level of 0.0% alcohol by volume (ABV) meaning it is not physiologically active. If you compare that to a glass of fresh orange juice with an ABV of 0.5%, you can see that non-alcoholic wine has less alcohol than orange juice.

Breastfeeding is the other traditional reason to not drink alcohol. It follows on from drinking in pregnancy and the imperative not to harm your baby by expressing alcohol into the breastmilk or becoming drunk and inadvertently harming your baby by neglect.

It is generally recognised that drinking alcohol free wine when breastfeeding is safe. No alcohol means none is expressed in breastmilk.

You can “drink and drive”

Alcohol free wine may have an insignificant 0.0% ABV, but even at this level its worth considering what it would take to stop you driving.

You are allowed to drink up to a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%. Depending on you size, weight, age etc, this might take 2-5 glasses of wine drank over 1-2 hours. Obviously I  would not recommend driving after any alcohol as even 1 drink can affect you.

The heart benefits are retained

Everyone has heard that red wine is good for the heart but does alcohol free wine retain this?

Alcohol free red wine retains the specific polyphenol antioxidant called resveratol when it is dealcoholised from fermented grapes. This is great news. It means alcohol free wine has all the added heart health benefits of alcoholic red wine. These include lowering of blood pressure and reduction in coronary artery disease. All without the adverse effects from the alcohol.

The antioxidants in wine are called polyphenols. One is of particular interest, resveratrol. It has been the focus of research for its ability to protect us against heart disease.

The scientific thinking is resveratrol may do this by reducing the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood, preventing some blood clotting and then preventing damage to blood vessel walls.

They can be Halal Certified

There is no way I could leave this one out on this site! It can be extended to all religious beliefs that forbid or don’t want you to drink alcohol.

The process from grape to Halal certification is an interesting one. If you don’t ferment grapes, you don’t get wine but you do get alcohol. Crushed grape juice isn’t wine so fermentation must happen.

Post fermentation, one of 3 processes can be applied to remove the alcohol

1. Cold Filtration
2. Vacuum Extraction
2.Spinning Column

The wine is computer monitored to ensure the ABV is 0.0%. After this, internationally recognised Islamic Councils certify products have met Halal requirements.

Bottling can happen followed by distribution. The entire chain can be secure knowing the alcohol by volume has been externally certified to be 0.0%

Well folks, I hope you agree that there is no time like the present to try a Halal Certified alcohol free wine today.