The shift from clean eating to clean drinking
Consumers who are increasingly selective about what they eat and drink don’t want to consume products with ingredients they can’t pronounce. They now are also overturning their glasses and evaluating every ingredient in alcoholic beverages. They’re looking for alternatives with a cleaner label – no artificial flavors, sweeteners or colors, and no preservatives.
What’s actually in your drink
Many are aware that alcohol metabolizes into acetaldehyde, a more toxic compound than alcohol itself, responsible for most symptoms experienced the day after drinking. What fewer know is that as alcohol metabolizes into acetaldehyde, fermented beverages deliver a “second strike” of metabolite compounds that have their own impact well before acetaldehyde appears on the scene.
Histamines gradually accumulate during the aging and fermentation of the wine. For many individuals, particularly those predisposed to histamine overreactions, these compounds trigger inflammatory responses that lead to symptoms such as flushing, headache, and congestion. Since these “second strike” metabolite symptoms are due to the alcohol metabolic process, but aren’t acetaldehyde symptoms, they’re often interpreted as simple alcohol overdose rather than an allergic-like reaction to metabolites. The symptoms are often compounded by the presence of sulfites, added to wine as preservatives to maintain freshness and prevent oxidation. Sulfites can lead to an array of symptoms similar to those of a histamine reaction, although the two chemical reactions are different. Tannins, as phenolic biomolecules, contribute to the same kind of reaction in sensitive populations.
For readers who want a more detailed explanation of the biological mechanisms involved, this in-depth explainer details the specific reactions leading to compound-triggered reactions to certain wines.
Congeners are the minor chemical byproducts of fermentation that influence the taste and mouthfeel of fermented alcoholic beverages. Some research suggests they also contribute to next-day symptoms if drunk in excess, although few are able to disentangle their effect from the “first wave” symptoms resulting from the direct fermentation metabolites, histamines, sulfites, and tannins. The “third wave” symptoms of the metabolization of acetaldehyde are well-known and best described by the saying, “hangover is your liver’s day after remorse”. Acetaldehyde is an unwanted metabolite of ethanol and quickly creates metabolic dysfunction and oxidative stress in the liver.
Why water quality is the foundation
Ensuring that your beverages are free of contaminants actually begins with the base insead of what you’re adding to them. For instance, people who are passionate about coffee or tea and who are willing to spend good money on single-origin beans or premium loose leaf are likely brewing with tap water that’s filled with dissolved heavy metals, chlorine byproducts, and microplastics. And those contaminants do not magically vanish when you brew a pot – they become part of your beverage.
Microplastics in particular have increasingly become a concern for health-conscious consumers. While the long-term effects of these plastics on our endocrine systems are still up for debate, the case for removing them from your diet seems like a no-brainer. A solid carbon block filter or reverse osmosis system will do the trick on most of this, although each method compromises somewhere in terms of mineral removal and retention.
If you’re going to all the trouble to source great beans, leaves, or grapes, stressing the importance of great water as a starting point is hardly a stretch.
The filtration revolution at the point of consumption
Traditionally, contaminant reduction was a manufacturer-side process. They decided what they put in the product, and you took it or left it. Not anymore.
Microfiltration technology has advanced to the scale and price point that can be consumer-used. There are now devices that using molecular selectivity can target specific irritants, pulling out sulfites or histamines for example without stripping out all the flavor compounds that actually made it a wine worth drinking. The difference matters, as earlier generation filters were ham-handed at best: they took out problems but they also took out character.
That’s broad-spectrum removal, and the alternative to it, the more precise and practically elegant solution, is selective removal- you find what’s actually causing the adverse reaction and you specifically target that compound, while leaving polyphenols and anti-oxidants nicely alone. This is where “functional purity” goes from marketing-speak to a proper category of meaning. 50% of moderate drinkers are right now actively looking for “better-for-you” beverage attributes and when they are, they are specifically looking for lower sugar and additive-free claims (IWSR Drinks Market Analysis). They aren’t just making that up, and the technology is finally getting so that it can accommodate customer’s need.
Functional purity isn’t just subtraction
There is a version of beverage optimization that imagines removal as the sole aim: Strip out everything potentially harmful, and you’ll end up with something that’s inherently safer but also inherently flatter and less interesting for it. Then there is the more nuanced version, in which removal is one half of the game.
Polyphenols are the antioxidants found in high levels in grape skins. The bioavailability – i.e., how much of it your body can actually absorb – of this compound is also influenced by what else is in the beverage. Name a few oxidative stressors associated with contaminants in the mix, and you could also be increasing the “net” biological benefit of what is left.
Enter the consideration of organic certification. This type of production means fewer synthetic pesticides precariously swallowed (or inhaled by those unlucky vineyard workers) during planting, growing, and harvesting of grapes. This includes lower herbicide loading entry, a real plus for people taking the long view and who are particularly mindful about the steady accumulation of chemicals over years of use.
The optimization mindset
Purity in beverages does not imply fear or complete avoidance. It’s about minimizing the physiological burden that accompanies the consumption of beverages that most of us don’t want to eliminate from our lives. Wine, coffee, craft beer are all social, and sensory pleasures with various quality nuances we should be concerned about.
The high-level approach is to learn the chemical composition of those beverages and identify the compounds or by-products that are responsible for the unwanted reactions in your body. Then, find tools that can reduce the concentration of those compounds in a less invasive way but with the best results. This is a better strategy than simply drinking less of a beverage you enjoy. Prevent rather than avoid, target rather than restrict.
