Carbs in Wine

With people becoming increasingly health conscience, it is only natural for a wine lover to wonder about the carbs in wine.

There are health benefits to wine.

As just about everyone knows (even if you don't want to know, you have definitely heard) there are so called "good" carbs and "bad" carbs. Well, with wine, it is a little less complicated than with food, so without getting to scientific, here is an explanation about the carbs in wine.

When most people think carbohydrates, they think of foods that are starchy or drinks high in sugar content. Wine, of course, contains no starch and very little residual sugar. The natural sugar that occurs in grapes is converted to alcohol during the fermentation process. There are not technically carbohydrates in wine, but what nutritionists and other scientific foodies like to call "carbohydrate equivalents". Huh? Confusing right? The "carbohydrate equivalents" in wine have more to do with how the body metabolizes wine. This part is a bit confusing, but here is the simple, easy to understand breakdown:

• Wine contains alcohol that is processed by your liver.
• Your liver converts the alcohol into acetate.
• Your body burns the acetate, turning it into energy, before it ever gets a chance to turn into fat.

Now that you have very simple and basic explanation about carbohydrates (if you are counting, wine, in moderation, is considered a "good" carb because it lowers your blood sugar) it is time to look into just how many of these carbohydrate equivalents are in a glass of wine.

Here is a list of popular red wines and their carbohydrate count:

• Cabernet Sauvignon – A five ounce glass contains around six grams of carbohydrates.
• Burgundy – For your run-of-the-mill burgundy, five ounces will get you about five and a half grams of carbs.
• Pinot Noir – A nice five ounce glass of Pinot nets around three grams of carbs.
• Shiraz/Syrah – Five ounces gets you four grams of carbs.
• Sangiovese – Five ounces of this Italian favorite yields around four grams of carbohydrates.

If you notice a bit of a pattern here, you aren't wrong. As a general rule, the bigger bodied the wine, the higher the carb count. The lighter bodied the wine, the lower the carb count.

The following is a short list of carbs in popular white wines:

• Chardonnay – Five ounces of Chard yields around four grams of carbs.
• Sauvignon Blanc – There are about three grams of carbohydrates per five ounce serving of Sauvignon Blanc.
• Champagne – The lightest in carb count, Champagne has around one gram of carbs per four to five ounce serving.
• Riesling – A five ounce serving of Riesling has about four and a half grams of carbohydrates.
• Pinot Grigio' – The carbohydrate count in Pinot Grigio stay pretty much the same as the ounces served. Meaning, a five or six ounce glass has about five or six grams of carbohydrates per serving.

If you are on a low-carb or low calorie diet, you need not worry about the carbohydrate content in wine so much, especially if you don't drink that much or that often. Even if you find that you have had more than you should at a meal or out with friends, you still don't need to worry about the carb content too much. Remember, your body will naturally convert the alcohol from the wine into acetate and use that as energy first before it ever gets a chance to begin converting the carbs in wine into sugar and then fat.

Besides, a low car or no carb diet is just not a good excuse (is there a good excuse?) to not enjoy a great bottle of wine with a group of your favorite people. So, go ahead, enjoy that glass or two of Pinot or Sauvignon Blanc, really, you wouldn't even be cheating on your low carb or low cal diet.

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