Who else likes to wind down after a long day with a glass of wine and some Disney+? The kid in me and the adult in me come together to enjoy a beverage and a movie đ
Wine is something that has been in the back of my mind for a long time now⌠Not in a weird, âI canât stop thinking about wineâ way, but in a âI know my wine isnât toxin free and I have to do something about itâ kind of way.Â
In March of 2019 (Iâm not kidding guys, this has been on my radar for awhile now đđ), I saw a post come up in a toxin free group about wine and the Roundup Weed Killer found in it. There was an article linked and I did not open it⌠I just couldnât. I had given up my candles, my wax melts, changed up my diet completely, and thrown away hundreds of dollars worth of personal care products, but not my wine.Â
Well, now here we are two years later and I know I have to stop living in blissful ignorance.Â
Letâs review whatâs in the type of wines youâre probably drinking…
Hello Pesticides
Most vineyards are sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides to protect their crops from insects and infection. These chemicals get in the soil, the grapes, and ultimately in the wine you drink. Grapes are near the top of the âDirty Dozenâ foods sprayed with the most chemicals. You avoid these chemicals in your food (thatâs why you shop for organic produce) and you should avoid them in your wine.
And unlike other fruits, which have a protective rind you donât eat⌠grapes have a thin and porous skin. That means they absorb the chemicals sprayed on them. And because wine is concentrated from so many grapes (600-800 per bottle) â the end result is a condensed source of harmful cancer-promoting chemical compounds.
Dump in the Additives
In the US, wine producers can use 76 different additives in wine without disclosing any of them on the bottle. Things like:
defoaming agents
artificial coloring (virtually every red wine under $20 has the colorant “mega purple”)
extra sugar
high fructose corn syrup
ammonia
GMO bacteria and yeasts
Fining and Clarifying Agents like fish bladder, casein or polyvinyl-polpyr-rolidone (PVPP)
sulfites
and a lot more
Thereâs one additive called Velcorin thatâs particularly insane. It must be applied by people with special training while wearing hazmat suits. Itâs so toxic it will burn your skin if you touch it and will kill you if consumed before itâs broken down in the wine. But even after it breaks down, Iâd rather not put that in my body…
Whatâs even worse than learning about all these additives used in winemaking is realizing that there is no labeling or transparency about their use. Wine has no ingredient label.
A wine can have 76 additives and you would have no idea!
Why do we passionately read the label for all the foods we buy and only purchase items with organic, clean ingredients, and yet we donât pay any attention to whatâs in our wine?!
Safe Option: Dry Farm Wines
If a Dry Farm Wine subscription isnât in your budget, you can:
⢠Look for the USDA organic label on the bottle. This means that the grapes used to make the wine were grown organically, but does not mean the wine wonât contain other problematic additives.
⢠Ask the staff at your local Whole Foods or even a good wine store to point you to the organic or biodynamic wines, some of which wonât be labeled as such.
⢠When in doubt, choose wines from France, Switzerland, and Austria instead of California, as European wines are more likely to be organic and dry-farmed.
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