Low-Carb Diets and Cooking with Wine

A low-carb diet does not have to be boring!

A few years ago, Sweet Lady Wife was enrolled in a well-known weight-loss program. The program was similar to the Atkins diet – no sugar and very low carbohydrates.  One of their rules was absolutely no alcohol.  I tried to explain to the young ladies who staffed the place that there is a difference between drinking wine and cooking with wine, but all they knew is what they had been taught.

If you have experienced the Atkins diet you know that you generally can have all the steak and ground beef you want.  Steak is great, but a naked ground beef patty sitting on your plate is pretty boring.  You can easily make that ground beef patty a lot more interesting with the addition of a sauce such as a Bordelaise sauce. Filet Mignon is a wonderful tender cut of beaf but it is not the most flavorful cut. You can easily rectify that with a sauce.

When I make Bordelaise Sauce I use about the equivalent of a glass of red wine. The USDA says that a serving of Cabernet Sauvignon contains 3.82g of carbohydrates. A batch of my Bordelaise sauce serves four (probably more), so that means you are adding less than one gram of carbs to your meal by having Bordelaise sauce with your ground beef patty or steak.

What about White Wines?

Some people are under the mistaken impression that red wines are better for dieters because they are less sweet.  The truth is that red wines only seem less sweet because of the tannins. The “sweetness” in white wines is the lack of those tannins, and the fruity flavors. It’s not actual sugar.

So when the ‘diet experts’ say “no wine” what they really mean is “no alcohol”, because the alcohol affects your blood sugar (It actually makes your blood sugar drop and causes you to crave sweets).  When cooking with wine however, all that alcohol gets cooked off.

Cook With Wine!