Is Wine Keto or Too High in Carbs?

Trying to figure out which types of alcohol you can still drink while following the keto diet isn’t exactly as straightforward as one might think. Let’s take wine for example.

Is wine keto? Does it matter if it’s red or white? What about the sugar content?

Today, we’re going to be taking an in-depth look at wine in order to definitively answer the question of whether or not it can be included on the keto diet.

What Makes Wine a Popular Choice for Low Carb Diets?

There are some rather obvious drink choices to exclude while going keto. Beer comes to mind immediately because it’s quite carb heavy. However, drinks like wine are rather popular amongst low carb dieters. Here are just some of the reasons why:

• You have a lot of options when it comes to dry wines. They are widely considered to have the most low carb wine options available.
• Most dry wine varieties contain less than one gram of net carbs per fluid ounce.
• Red wine in particular is a good source of antioxidants. One such antioxidant is a polyphenol known as resveratrol, which is known to provide some protection against heart disease (see below).
• Wine can be used as a base to make a variety of keto-friendly cocktails and drink recipes.

Is Wine Keto?

Wine can indeed be 100% keto-friendly, provided that you adhere to a few basic keto guidelines.

For starters, one of the reasons why wine is obviously so popular with keto dieters (along with spirits like vodka) is the fact that it contains far fewer carbs than a drink option like beer would. With that being said though, it’s also important to remember that not all types of wine are created equal.

You can absolutely find wine brands that contain far too much sugar to ever be viable on the keto diet. In fact, there are many of these sweet dessert types of wines.

In general, a good rule of thumb when shopping for keto wines is to stick with dry wines. Your average dry wine will contain less than 0.5 grams of sugar per glass, making it perfectly keto-friendly.

To recap, as long as you stick with a good dry wine, and you’re enjoying your wine in moderation (1-2 glasses per day), then you can absolutely enjoy wine while on the keto diet.

Keto Wine Drink Recipes

Keto Red Wine Spritzer

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Crockpot Keto Mulled Wine

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Keto Wine Punch

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Keto White Wine Spritzer

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Keto Sparkling Wine Sangria

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Wine Nutrition Facts

If we take a one fluid ounce (about 29.5 grams) serving size of a typical dry red wine, it will have the following nutritional breakdown:

• 25 calories
• 0 grams fat
• 0 grams protein
• 0.8 grams carbs
• 0 grams dietary fiber
• 0.2 grams sugar
• 0 mg cholesterol
• 1.2 mg sodium
• 37.3 mg potassium

Wine Health Benefits

Another one of the main reasons why wine is such a popular keto drink is because it manages to provide you with some pretty impressive health benefits as well. Here are a few of the top ones:

• Reduced risk of heart disease. Numerous studies have found that resveratrol, one of the key antioxidants in red wine, can help to lower LDL cholesterol levels and reduce high blood pressure. Considering that hypertension and high levels of LDL cholesterol are directly linked with an increased risk of developing coronary heart disease, then drinking 1-2 glasses of red wine per day may help to lower your overall risk. In fact, one particular study found that moderate wine drinkers were able to reduce their risk of heart disease by as much as 40%. (1)
• Reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. There’s a significant amount of evidence that drinking red wine in particular has a blood sugar lowering effect for up to 24 hours (as per the American Diabetes Association). The reason for this is that wine can actually increase adiponectin, which is a hormone that helps to improve insulin sensitivity. (2)
• Strengthens the immune system. We know that moderate wine consumption has been linked to anti-aging and an increased life span. This can be partly attributed to the fact that wine has immune strengthening properties, which numerous studies have confirmed. (3)

What Are the Best Keto-Friendly Wine Brands?

Normally we try and provide our readers with a few specific keto-friendly brands for various foods and/or drinks.

When it comes to keto-friendly wine though, there’s really only one brand that we strongly stand behind: Dry Farm Wines.

Every single wine in their portfolio is all natural and additive free, lab tested for purity (and to verify that each glass contains as little as 0.15 grams of sugar per glass), and an overall lower alcohol content (<12.5%).

And most importantly? Their wines taste flat out amazing.

Keto Wine Alternatives

Wine isn’t the only keto-friendly alcohol option available to keto dieters. Here are a few other great options to enjoy that won’t knock you out of ketosis:

• Sparkling wine
• Vodka
• Gin
• Tequila
• Whiskey