Wine Calories - Facts to Know About Wine Calories.

What do you know about wine calories? Wine is nothing more than fermented grapes, but wine varies in flavor, smoothness and color, due to the type of grapes, climate, soil and production methods. Red wine is made from red grapes; white wine from green; and rose, or blush, from red (not a mixture of red and white, as some people believe). Research has found that red wine helps with blood circulation and, in moderation (one 4- to 6-ounce glass daily) is good for the heart.

The number of wine calories in an average glass (4 fl oz/115ml) is shown in the table below. Wine can contain up to 15% alcohol by volume and alcohol has lots of calories. As a comparison alcohol contains 7 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram. The more alcohol a wine contains the more energy that wine will contain. Therefore to lose weight it may be best to cut out wines and other alcoholic drinks until you have reached your goal weight. It's also a good idea to use non-alcoholic drinks until the weight is lost.

As a general rule, a glass of wine contains about 80 calories, when the term "glass" is comparable to 4 ounces and not comparable to a 7-11 Big Gulp. Fortified wine is typically higher in calories and wines with higher alcohol content - because alcohol is where the majority of the calories are generated - may pack a better punch, but they will also pack on more pounds. To put this in perspective, the US Department of Agriculture states that 100 grams of wine with a 12.2 alcohol content have roughly 85 calories; 100 grams of wine with a 18.8 alcohol content have 135 calories. The sugar in wine also plays as much a dramatic role as the alcohol; the higher the sugar content, the more calories it will have. For this reason, some dieters prefer to consume dry wines with lower alcohol content.

No matter the type of wine consumed whether vintage from the secret cellar or ordinary, people who drink do run the risk of gaining weight, but the wine itself is not the problem: rubbing the nose of your bottle of Port against your bathroom scale and repeatedly telling it "No" is unwarranted. It's not the consumption of wine that adds pounds, it's the consumption of wine without cutting back on food. Wine, like other liquids, doesn't have the ability to curb our appetite. Thus, many of us start to drink wine without taking into consideration the extra wine calories and we consume our regular caloric intake through food. When the wine calories are added to our regular intake, additional calories are consumed. Still, these additional calories are often better for you than additional calories from other alcoholic sources.