“I can’t drink red wine because it gives me a headache.”
I hear this all the time, usually followed by, “It’s the sulfites. I can’t tolerate them, so I have to drink white wine.” The people who say this may well be right that red wine gives them a headache, but I’m pretty sure that a large number of them are wrong about the cause.
The first reason I’m sure that many of these folks are wrong is because, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, only about one in a hundred of us are truly sensitive to sulfites without any underlying medical condition. Another very small percent of the population is potentially sensitive to sulfites because they suffer from asthma. Sulfites can and do trigger asthma attacks, but asthma attacks don’t manifest as headaches.
But medical facts aside, there is an even bigger reason to be suspicious of the sulfites-in-red-wine-give-me-a-headache claim. The fact is, there are actually more sulfites in white wine than in red!
You see, the sulfites in wine act as a preservative, extending shelf life. Because red wine has lots of tannins and other substances that come from the skin of the grape and help preserve the wine, red wines don’t need much in the way of additional preservatives. White wines by contrast are white because they are made from grapes whose skins have been removed; without the natural preservatives that come from grape skins, you don’t have natural preservatives, so more sulfites end up being added to extend shelf life.
The third reason I’m sure that many sulfites haters are wrong about the cause of their headaches is because many of them eat lots of other things with higher levels of sulfites than wine. Dried fruit, bottled lemon juice and sauerkraut all have high levels of sulfites. If you think red wine is giving you a headache, you should be experiencing a similar or more intense headache from these foods (and others) as well.
Of all the myths about wine that abound in our popular culture, I think the one about sulfites irritates me the most! We have become so obsessed with the idea of natural or organic or chemical-free foods and beverages that we often miss two important points: First, the fact that lots of chemicals in our foods and beverages are created by nature; and second, that many chemicals actually do good things for us.
The sulfites in wine prove both these points – they naturally occur as a result of fermentation, and they protect and preserve the wine.
“Sulfites” is the general term that encompasses the many forms of sulphurous acid that exist. In wine, sulfites typically take the form of sodium dioxide, also known as SO2. SO2 occurs during the fermentation process when grapes become wine. Many wineries add additional SO2 to their wine because it is not only a preservative but an antioxidant, meaning it slows the damage that oxygen does to a good glass of vino. (If you don’t quite understand how damaging oxygen is to wine, try leave a glass out on the counter over night. By tomorrow night, you will be well on your way to vinegar!)
Without SO2, many lighter, fruitier wines would only last about 6 months from the date they are bottled. A little SO2 gives these delicate whites a longer shelf life. It is possible to find wine without sulfites, but it’s either going to be red wine (with those other naturally-occurring preservatives I mentioned earlier) or white wines that you need to drink quickly.
So, this leaves us with two questions: Why are wineries required to put “contains sulfites” on the label if there’s SO2 in the wine? And, second, if it’s not sulfites causing my headache, what is?
The first question is easier to answer than the second. As I mentioned above, about one percent of the population truly is allergic to sulfites. If the allergy is severe enough, exposure to wine with sulfites can be deadly. For this reason, the federal government instituted the “contains sulfites” labeling requirement to warn buyers to beware.
The second question is more complicated. Obviously, the most common association between wine and headaches is over-imbibing. That is within your control! Less easy to explain, however, is why some people really do get a headache after drinking red wine but don’t appear to be bothered by white wine. Why? Scientists have not definitively answered this question yet. The best theory at the moment is that either the tannins or the histamines that naturally occur in grape skins cause some people to develop headaches – perhaps because of allergies or a chemical interaction. Because red wine is made from contact with grape skins, while white wine is not, this theory might explain why red wines can cause headaches, while white wines do not.
This explanation is only a theory, but it’s more plausible than pinning the blame on sulfites as the culprit.
Now that you’ve joined the ranks of the educated, you can help debunk this myth. In this country, you still have to be proven guilty before you can be convicted, and the jury is still out on the sulfite question. In fact, there doesn’t even appear to be any reasonable evidence of guilt. Let’s band together and keep sulfite out of the electric chair. They didn’t commit the crime!
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