Imagine going to your favorite restaurant and ordering a vegan or plant-based meal that you have shifted to recently. Of course, your favorite red wine is on the menu. However, the moment you would sip, your friend suddenly stopped you, asking, “Is this wine vegan?”
Surprising, isn’t it? Wine – made of grapes and yeast – how can it be non-vegan? However, shocking; not all wines are vegan and suitable for a plant-based diet.
A plant-based diet excludes every animal product – meat, eggs, dairy, and even honey. In addition, it also excludes any by-products deriving from animals or insects during food processing. However, some animal products – casein, gelatin, albumin, etc. are used during wine fining, making your wine unsuitable for a plant-based diet.
However, there’s a catch – plant-based wine that you can drink.
Let’s discover together – can you drink red wine on a plant-based diet, how it benefits you, and what other drinks you can add to your diet.
A plant-based diet stresses whole or minimally-processed fiber-rich food, excluding animal products, including vegetables, nuts, whole grains, seeds, etc. Often it includes dairy, eggs, or other animal products; however, they appear on the plate in a very tiny amount.
A balanced plant-based diet is highly beneficial for weight loss – perfectly able to provide everything you need to manage your healthy muscle and lean body. It also supports intense training and workout by any athletes, providing them with all the necessary nutrients. You just need to know what and in which portion you are planning your diet.
In addition, a balanced plant-based diet decreases the risk for diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers.
Indeed difficult to maintain at first, the plant-based diet undoubtedly offers losing weight in a short time. Thanks to whole fiber-rich food, you are less hungry, as your stomach and heart are full, content, and satisfied the entire day.
The plant-based diet plan for weight loss focuses on a balanced meal of 1200- 1600 calories per day. Especially, a meal containing 1,200 calories is highly effective in losing weight, around 1 or 2 pounds per week. However, you must ensure your meal includes the necessary nutrients – carbs, proteins, fats – the macros in proper portions.
Weight Loss Clinic, LA, provides the best treatment plans tailored to your personal weight loss goals. The expert doctor and nutritionist will give a diet plan that ensures weight loss in the shortest period based on your health, weight, and nutrition goal.
Usually, the overall calories intake depends on your age, height, weight, and nutrition goal. However, in the majority, the diet of 1600 – 1800 calories includes all these three components in the following proportions-
| The Components | Portions | Calories Intake |
| Carbohydrates | 150 – 290 | 45–65% of total daily calories |
| Protein | 60 – 130 | 20–30% of total daily calories |
| Fat | 50 – 90 | 25–35% of total daily calories |
You may ask, protein and fat in a plant-based diet – what can you eat?
Here are some suggestions for your protein and fat sources.
The balanced plant-based diet is an excellent source of protein, often containing fewer calories than animal products. The food includes-
Healthy fat is essential for proper organ function, healthy skin, and fat-soluble vitamin absorption. The plant-based fats include-
The plant-based diet is healthy and nature-friendly, yet shifting to a plant-based diet is difficult.
Whatever your reason is – health, moral, or a new exploration – it’s crucial to know what you can eat and what you can’t. Here comes the life-changing question – can you drink on a plant-based diet? Especially red wine?
Red wines contain a high concentration of polyphenols, naturally occurring micronutrients in plants that act as antioxidants. Therefore, it’s perfectly suitable for a plant-based diet at a moderate rate, depending on your health condition. Only one or two drinks indeed is the healthy way to go.
People usually consider wine a vegan drink as its main ingredients are grapes and yeast. However, it’s not entirely true – some wines include animal derivatives. Though wine is fermented grapes, the fermentation process contains several effects and outcomes.
Fermentation is an essential part of winemaking, involving the addition of yeast to the grapes. It triggers a reaction in grapes’ naturally ensuing sugars, leading to several outcomes – heat, bubble, hazy appearance, and alcohol.
After the fermentation process, the produced wine contains some molecules (phenolics or tartrates, or tannins) that float around – completely natural and harmless to drink. However, many don’t prefer this appearance of the wine and want clearer and smoother wine. Here comes the fining process that may make your plant-based wine non-vegan.
Fining is a winemaking process that removes floating molecules from the wine, clarifying and stabilizing the wine. Fining agents don’t change the wine’s flavor; simply make your wine crystal clear, visually appealing, and free of hydrogen sulfide and bitter tastes.
The winemaking fining process often involves several animal products – fish oil, fish bladder, blood, egg white, chitin, etc. Though this fining agent is removed when you get your desired texture, aroma, and flavor, there remains a tiny trace of the animal product. It makes the wine a non-vegan drink, unsuitable for a plant-based diet.
However, some wines don’t involve fining process with animal products. Instead, they have pea gelatine, silica gel, or silica clay, making the wine perfectly palatable on a plant-based diet.
Following a plant-based diet is difficult; finding a plant-based drink is tricky. Especially wines.
Several wines are not suitable for a plant-based diet due to animal products as fining agents. However, some wines contain animal-friendly products, so there is no trace of animal derivations. These wines usually involve clay-based natural agents that include-
Several plant-based wines brands are available you can add to your diet and drink, including-
Enjoying a glass or two of red wine every day is not that harmful. On the contrary, it offers numerous health benefits – reducing the risk for heart disease, and inflammation, maintaining healthy blood pressure, etc.
However, moderation is the key to healthy living. However little, wine contains alcohol. Therefore, despite their health benefits, drinking excessive wines can cause more damage than benefits.
Red wine is a delicacy on the dining table. It has also become a part of our social culture. However, is drinking red wine beneficial for your health.
The study suggested that drinking wine in moderation serves several health benefits, such as managing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc.
The health benefits of red wine include-
Drinking a glass or two of red wine offers several health benefits. However, excessive drinking of any alcohol, including wine, can increase health risks severely. These risks include-
The four main ingredients in beer are – wheat or a grain like barley, yeast, hops (a flower providing a beer’s bitter taste), and water. Therefore, it’s pretty obvious to consider beer a plant-based drink. However, it’s not completely correct.
Similar to wine, beer also includes animal products during the fining process. Especially agents like gelatin or isinglass ensure the clarity and smoothness of the beer, removing the cloudy texture. Therefore, you can’t drink them if you are following a plant-based diet.
However, some brewers add moss as the fining agent, which is a natural plant-based product. Therefore, these beers are perfectly suitable for red wine on a plant-based diet.
If you follow a fully plant-based diet, you can drink wine and beer that are free from animal products – isinglass, the dried fish bladders; gelatine, derived from boiled bones, flesh, and ligaments; casein, a protein from cow’s milk; and egg whites. However, several other alcohols are available that are perfectly suitable for a plant-based diet or vegans.
The concept is simple – avoid any alcoholic products with animal-derived ingredients. These drinks include-
However, many often ask – plant-based alcohol vs isopropyl alcohol – what is the difference? In short, plant-based alcohol is ethanol – a natural byproduct made of plant fermentation. It is produced from plants and grains – corn, wheat, and barley. On the contrary, isopropyl alcohol is made of water and propene, coming from fossil fuels.
Can you drink red wine on a plant-based diet? Of course, you can, if the fining agent is not any animal products. However, what are the other drinks that add maximum health benefits to your diet?
Drinks that go perfectly with your plant-based diet include-
A plant-based diet is not easy to adjust in a few days; it requires time and patience. And when it comes to your favorite wine, it evolves into a life-changing question – can you drink red wine on a plant-based diet?
To simply answer, yes, you can drink wine if it doesn’t contain any animal products as fining agents. If you follow a fully plant-based diet, drink wine that contains natural clay-based agents like carbon, bentonite clay, limestone, etc. However, remember moderation is the key to healthy living. Therefore, drink as much as your doctor suggests.
Weight Loss Clinic, LA, is a perfect place to enquire and acquire all information about the plant-based diet. Depending on your health and goal, the expert doctor will provide you with a perfect diet plan with proper guidance, monitoring, and a quick result.
At Weight Loss Clinic LA we are dedicated to providing our clients with the best treatment plans tailored to your personal weight loss goals with the newest technology available to the market.
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