Wine is to the French what the sled is to Santa Claus: an always companion. Whether white, rosé or red, this delicate alcohol accompanies our greatest meals with family like our little glasses with friends. Nevertheless, especially for red, excessive consumption offers an alarm clock in pain, because of a nice headache.
The apologies and supporting headaches are old as the world. Many components of red wine have been accused without their knowledge, sulfites and tannins being the most famous. However, an article by The Conversation suggests a new culprit of these ailments.
Sulfites are the largest popular scapegoats linked to headaches. The fault in the United States which, in the 1990s, made the mention of sulfites compulsory on the labels of wines in the country. However, there is almost no evidence establishing a direct link between sulfites and headaches. Certain foods contain these conservative agents at the same quantity as in red wine, but without having the same effects.
Others accuse biogenic amines, nitrogen substances found in many fermented or spoiled foods which can cause headache. But the quantity present in the wine is too low to be the cause of any evil.
The hypothesis of tannins as guilty of headaches could be a good track, because white wines contain only tiny quantities, unlike red wines. Tanins are molecules of the family of polyphenols which participate in the protection of plants and which take a different chemical form depending on the variety. However, tannins are also present in many other products that do not cause headache, such as tea and chocolate.
The culprit: a component of the grape skin
Before giving an explanation to your complicated Sunday mornings, know that alcohol -related headaches are first due to a delay in metabolism when the body eliminates alcohol. For the body to best digest red wine, you must have good ALDH enzymes (dehydrogenase aldehyde). If the latter are bad, they will lead to the accumulation of acetaldehyde, a somewhat toxic compound also linked to the hangover. It is as if you were at a barrier and trash plugged in the flow of water: after a while, the overflow is inevitable.
Thus, after having traveled the list of phenolic compounds present in abundance in red wine and which could deteriorate the ALDH enzymes, scientists point to quercetin. This organic compound is found in the skin of the grapes, which explains its abundance in red wines because the skin of red grapes is left longer during the fermentation process than for white wine. After several scientific tests, the results are promising since they indicate that Quercetin disrupts the metabolism of alcohol in the body. This disturbance leads to greater acetaldehyde circulation and therefore the appearance of headache. However, more in -depth research is necessary.
If you thought you had a vein for gentle awakenings without stopping drinking, you will have to wait a little: there is still too little data concerning the existence of red wines without quercetin. However, the grapes exposed to the sun produce more, it is a first track that can help you target specific wine regions.
