I like to have an occasional glass of wine, usually on the weekends, but I’ve gone nearly a month sometimes without touching a drop of it. As one gets older, it seems harder not to put on the pounds, and who needs the extra calories alcohol so readily provides us with? At least that had been my reasoning until I came across a tiny article in Wine Spectator. No, we are not snobby rich people who prominently display our copy of Wine Spectator on our coffee table. We get that magazine because there aren’t many good magazines to choose from when you need to cash in unwanted sky miles from an airline you seldom fly. It was either Wine Spectator or Golf Digest. Since we’ve never picked up a golf club in our lives, unless miniature golf counts, Wine Spectator was a better choice. That makes us the lowly working class Joes who prominently display our copy of Wine Spectator on the coffee table.
Anyway, I digress. The article says that a study has found that a substance in red wine can actually decrease fat formation during digestion. The study showed that this substance prevented the body from converting calories into fat. It hasn’t been tested in humans yet (I volunteer), so I wonder if little mousies drank to their hearts’ content and kept their svelte figures. Anyway, I thought some of you would be interested in that.
Of course, when I drink wine, and I don’t think I’m alone in this, I tend to have a spread of other things to go along with it. Salsa and chips, for example. Guacamole, charcuterie perhaps, and dark chocolate, of course goes great with red wine. Oh, and maybe some salt and vinegar chips. What about a stack of Buffalo wings with a bowl of blue cheese dressing? Ooh, I forgot about Mexican 7-Layer Dip. Yum! Do you think that fat-blocking substance in the wine blocks fat from everything you consume when you’re drinking it? Yeah, I’m sure it does.
Coming East 
Good to know. It might be time for me to establish a wine drinking ritual on the deck at sunset. Just one glass of wine, and maybe some of that Mexican 7-Layer Dip you mentioned. 🙂
I’m only good for one small glass, too, Robin. But the seven-layer dip is another story..
Your post came just in the nick of time. I was about to give up my glass of wine with dinner, in hopes of shaving a few calories. Now if I could just be a svelte as those French women. Perhaps it’s the stuffed pizza, not the wine. (You also know me as OnceALittleGirl.com)
Thought that might be you, Adela. Glad I could help you hang onto that glass of wine with dinner. I’m all into helping others!
I prefer white wine. It may not be as healthy, but if it spills on the table cloth, no one gets too excited. Spill red wine and it creates such a flurry of activity.
I like a glass of chilled white wine outside on the patio in the summer, Margie. And you are right about spilling red wine. I had experience with that about a month ago…
I hope you’re right, Susan, I’ve already started this fabulous diet. Why…hic…I think I can feel the fat breaking down right now…hic…..sheesh…this stuff sure tastes good…..jez a minute…I have to schtop the room from spinning….Ok where waz I……oh yeah….65 bottles of beer on the wall…hic….65 bottles of beer……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
You are seriously cracking me up, Al. May I come over and join you?
Wake uuuup, you’re dreaming! LOL
Thanks, Patti, for the wake-up slap. I needed that.
I appreciate a glass of wine in the evening, but you’re so right… it always goes with food, especially cheese. I don’t want to give up either one, so maybe I need to add another mile to my daily walk.
But no worries, Shary. The wine will block the fat absorption…if I read the article correctly. Actually, I might have been reading between the lines.
Spectator?! Is that for people who watch wines?! 😉
Ha! I guess they watch them before they drink them. It’s a very large, beautiful magazine, Eye, but it projects a lifestyle way beyond our means. Some of the wines it reviews, though, are ones that are only slightly above our usual price range, so it does have some good suggestions. Most of the wines they write about are ones we could never and would never buy. We’d drink it, though, if someone offered it to us!
There’s no point drinking something you can’t afford, where’s the pleasure in that? It certainly doesn’t make you a better person for it despite what these ‘lifestyle’ folk believe. Happy drinking, the cheap, the cheerful and the tasty. 🙂
The pleasure in that, Eye, is if you drink someone else’s expensive wine.
Oh. (Is it about this time that I confess to not actually liking the stuff?!) 😉
LOL, Eye!
Are they doing a study on humans? Because if they are, I need to begin my “Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!” campaign pronto.
Let’s plan it together, SC!
A perfect week here at the lake. I can say we have marked –‘er polished off–off 5 of the above + some others and have enjoyed every one of them!!!
So glad your lake time was productive, Georgette!
Hmm, this is a good reason to have that glass of red wine for me. I like to drink wine but I seem to get red and splotchy once I drink even just a half of the glass. 😦
You and I will never be drinkers then, Yen, thank goodness! I can sit all eventing sipping on half a glass. But I do enjoy that half glass quite a bit.
This one’s a winner Susan! Love it. I’m hitting the bottle NOW. 🙂
Um…isn’t it a little early for that, Dor. I don’t want to be responsible for your downfall.
If you eat with friends, it cuts the calories in half. If you break the chip(s) you are eating in half, the calories fall out. There are ways, my friend, to avoid those pound packing calories. Well, that’s my story and I am sticking to it!
Sounds like you’ve had a lot of practice with this DAF. I will follow your expert advice.
Life is to short not to have wine & wings…..Cheers!
Thanks, Life. And it’s nice to know that just maybe I won’t be piling on the pounds while I’m doing it!