The holidays have a funny way of encouraging over-indulgence. Wouldn’t you agree? We eat more, travel more, drink more, party more; everything seems to be in excess.

And because of this our health can take a hit. We sacrifice our healthy habits for a few months in the name of celebration and good cheer. Then, we make our New Year’s Resolution to get back to our best health.

We’ve been going through this cycle for years now, and one of the main ways we overindulge is with alcohol. Hard liquor, sugary cocktails, beer, shots, high alcohol wines – the world consumes them all. In England, for example, one study found the country consumes 12 million more bottles of wine per week during this festive time of year.

That’s a lot of headaches and hangovers. Plus, it feels like we’re cheating on our healthy diets.

The holidays shouldn’t be a time for guilt or sacrifice. They’re a time for love and celebration! Alcohol can be a vibrant part of the holiday celebrations. In fact, wine has been shown to have health benefits – from improving heart health to fighting cavities… but not all wines are created equal.

THE PROBLEM WITH MOST WINES

Most wines these days, both white and red, are highly processed, meaning they are created in factories, and with additives such as juice, syrup, sugar, and sawdust, to name a few. Additionally, there are 76 chemicals and additives approved by the FDA for use in wine making. You read that right, seventy six!

You’re probably wondering where these additives are coming from…

• Oak chips/dust are commonly used in a soaking process called “oaking the wine”. This is a cheaper alternative to letting wine soak in traditional, more expensive wooden barrels, where it would gain slow oxidation benefits.
• MegaPurple is a brand name for a food additive (grape juice syrup) produced from purple-fleshed grapes that is used in approximately 25 million bottles of wine per year. It’s added to give the wine an appearance of a deeper, richer color and sweeter flavor.

Wait… Don’t panic!  Don’t let this information put a damper on your celebrations.

VIVA LA VINO!

We want to introduce you and your holiday guests to our solution for safe and seductive wines. Meet our friend Todd White. He is the founder of Dry Farm Wines, whose mission is to provide the finest natural, organic and biodynamic wines.

Dry Farm Wines is just what we here at Calton Nutrition have been looking for. They are the only wine club in the world that is currently offering healthy wines made from organic and natural farming practices, as well as low intervention natural winemaking practices. Dry Farm Wines doesn’t actually make any wines at all, instead they curate wines from all over the world, working with small family farms that are committed to producing pure natural wines. All of Todd’s wines are lab tested to meet specific standards of purity.

WHY DO WE THINK DRY FARM WINES ARE SUPERIOR?

#1: Low alcohol. Wines can range in alcohol from 7 – 24% alcohol by volume. However, alcohol on the label is not required by the US Government to be accurate. It is simply “stated” and there is zero U.S. enforcement for accuracy. Dry Farm Wine tests every wine to verify it is at or below what is stated on the label and wines do not exceed a naturally occurring 12.5% alcohol. That allows you to enjoy a night of wine without feeling hung-over in the morning.

Your first reaction is probably like ours: why low alcohol? I need the buzz…

Low alcohol doesn’t mean “no buzz”; it’s a different better buzz completely. The wine industry markets high alcohol wines as more valuable and desirable. In reality, you can still get pleasantly buzzed from low alcohol wines, but you’ll feel fresh and euphoric. Here’s the best way we can explain it:

• Creative expression. Lower alcohol doesn’t impact your cognition the same way liquor does. And wine doesn’t cause the inflammation from gluten in beer. Lower alcohol wines keep your mind active. They soften your anxieties and your barriers, so you feel more creative and expressive.
• Euphoric buzz. When you drink lower alcohol wines, you don’t get “drunk”; instead, you get a social, euphoric buzz. You feel really good – energetic, smooth, joyful – without feeling sluggish or sloppy.

Lower alcohol wines provide the perfect balance between enjoyment and health, and they get us feeling the pleasurable buzz of wine without seriously damaging our bodies. From all or our research, we’ve learned that low alcohol natural wines are the ideal alcohol choice to maximize the health benefits (like all those polyphenols!) and minimize the negatives.

Dry Farm Wines curates the world’s best healthy pure natural wines – all organic, sugar-free, natural, and low alcohol wines. They lab test every wine they import to make sure the alcohol content is 12.5% or less.

#2 Low sulfites. The US government restricts added sulfites in wine to 350 ppm (parts per million). For now, Todd has created a standard not to exceed 75 ppm in their wines and most of the wines they represent are below 50 ppm. Low sulfites mean higher levels of beneficial bacteria in the wine.

#3 Ketosis Friendly & Sugar Free. Their wines are lab tested for fructose and glucose, the two sugars found in wine. All of the Dry Farm wines are <1g/L of total sugars, per bottle! This is statistically sugar free. These low/no sugars are naturally occurring, nothing added or taken away. This means drinking several glasses won’t knock you out of ketosis!

BRING OUT THE BUBBLY!

What really caught our attention this year was their sugar-free sparkling wine.

Bubbles are a staple of holiday celebrations (and one of our favorites here at the Calton household), but they’re usually full of sugar. In fact, sparkling wine can have up to 50 g/L, which is like eating 2 teaspoons of sugar with each glass of wine (it’s because of the winemaking process, where many winemakers add sugar into the wine to trigger fermentation so bubbles form).

Without the sugar or carbs, you can feel good about clinking those bubbly flutes. You won’t sacrifice your health, and you won’t get negative wine reactions like headaches or energy crashes.

This holiday season they have a 3-pack of sparkling wines. This bubbly makes a perfect gift or can make any celebration just perfect! Check it out here!

NOW YOU CAN DRINK UP, GUILT FREE!

A recent study out of the University of Oregon showed that consumption of 19 grams of alcohol—about two small glasses of wine—helped preserve bone strength just as well as bisphosphonates, a type of drug used by hundreds of thousands of women to combat thinning bones. Finnish researchers concur; in 2013 they determined that women drinking more than three alcoholic drinks a week had significantly higher bone density than abstainers. Make no bones about it, moderate alcohol intake helps osteoporosis, but its benefits don’t stop there. Two Harvard studies revealed that, compared to abstainers, the risk of death from all causes was reduced by up to 28 percent among men and women who drank alcohol moderately.

We are happy to share Dry Farm Wines with you, and extend an offer for our readers to claim a bottle for just one penny. You’ll get a full sized bottle for just one penny, when you place a club order.

And the best part is, our friend Todd is so sure you will love his wines that he offers a 100% total satisfaction guarantee – if you don’t like a wine for any reason, just let him know and he will send you another for free! It is called his Happiness Guarantee and you will LOVE IT!

And, their wine makes the perfect gift. They have a strong gift lineup for the holidays; they’ll handle all logistics of shipping wine and even hand-write a personalized note for your gift.  (How cool is that?)

As soon as you take a sip, you’ll taste and feel the difference with these wines. And trust us, your body and mind will thank you.

Click here to learn more. Cheers!