Have you ever considered whether the calories in a glass of wine make it worth drinking or not? Lots of different diets would have you believe that a simple, enjoyable glass of wine is going to derail your diet for good! But in actual fact the only way you can derail your diet is to get several things wrong all at once.
The fact is that a glass of wine may not be as harmful for your diet as you might think. Most diets ban it completely. It's also known for having empty calories. This basically means that you're getting calories and very little else in terms of fat, carbs or protein. But that isn't the end of the story - even though most diets like to have you believe it is!
So what's the caloric value of a single glass?
Well let's focus on a small glass here of around 115ml. Sweet wines will always be slightly more calorific than dry wines, because of their inherent sweetness. But once you see the difference between the two of them you might be surprised to learn there is less of a difference than you might think.
Let's say you want a glass of red wine. If you go for a dry wine you'll be taking in around 83 calories. But maybe you're a sweet red wine kind of person? Okay, if that's the case you should be thinking of around 100 calories instead. Not much of a difference is there?
So let's move on to white wine. Are there fewer calories in a glass of wine in this situation? A glass of dry white wine (assuming around 115ml as stated before) actually has slightly fewer than 80 calories in it. Meanwhile you will be having more calories for a sweet white wine, but even then it will only get up to around 103 calories.
Fortified wines obviously have more, so if you stick to standard red or white wines you will be able to go by the calorific amounts given above.
So is wine actually a pretty good thing to have in your diet?
As with all things, provided you drink it in moderation there is no reason why you shouldn't include it in your diet. It might actually help you to stick with it, since it is a very low calorie treat to allow each day!
The other good thing about drinking a small amount of wine is the health benefits it can give you. Antioxidants are just one of the things that can be found in wine, and these can help you stay healthy for longer and also fight disease. Sometimes there can be a good reason why certain foods or drinks are omitted from a diet plan. But as you can see with only a low volume of calories in a glass of wine and plenty of plus points health wise to look forward to, you might be better off including it rather than omitting it.