This is from an article in 'Bon Appetite":
No, You Are (Probably) Not Allergic to Sulfites
Believe me, I get wanting to blame your wine headaches on something other than the fact that you’re drinking too much wine. But you’re probably not allergic to sulfites. The FDA estimates that less than 1% of the U.S. population has a sulfite allergy, and those who do are most likely asthmatic. If you are allergic, you may get hives and have trouble breathing within 30 minutes of sulfite exposure, and should arm yourself an Asthma rescue inhaler because an order of shrimp has more sulfites than an entire bottle of Sangiovese. For the rest of us trying to explain our “headaches” away, there is a chance that red wine headaches are caused by the histamines present in red wine. If you’re predisposed to allergies like hay fever, you could try Claritin before hitting the bottle—but do some with an abundance of caution, or a designated driver. And don’t forget to drink plenty of water, allergenic or not.
And No, Sulfites Aren’t Generally Bad for You
Despite the ominous “CONTAINS SULFITES” warning that accompanies most wine labels, sulfites are not the nicotine of wine, although that is exactly what lobbyists wanted you to believe. Starting in the 1970s, anti-alcohol lobbyists were trying to pass legislation that would require wines to list their ingredients. After those efforts continuously failed, a 1987 law required any wine with 10 PPM (parts per million) or more sulfites to be labeled with “contains sulfites.” But this has nothing to do with actual health risks and was entirely meant to scare people away from drinking wine. If it was really about health, the “contains sulfites” campaign would have included products like dried fruit, which have around 3500 PPM, compared to wine, which averages around 80 PPM and by law cannot exceed 350 PPM.
Yep, Your Kid’s Fruit Leather Has More Sulfites than Wine
Wayyy more. So do those French fries you had at lunch. Sorry, I know you don’t need any more reasons to not love French fries but they do have approximately 1900 PPM. But you just shouldn’t worry about it. Everything from pickles to pizza crust to painkillers contain sulfites. The reason sulfites became such a big deal is because in the 1980s there was a rise in sulfur allergic reactions due to the large amount of sulfur used in preservatives. Imagine if suddenly everything had a ton of peanuts in it without any warning, and then a bunch of kids with nut allergies ended up in the hospital, or worse. It makes sense that you’d want companies to disclose that peanuts are in their products, but that doesn’t mean you, a non-peanut-allergic-person, need to spend the rest of your life terrified of every Chex party mix.
So Now What?
Dude, live your life with the wine flowing freely. If you’re concerned about added chemicals in your wine, you’ve got 99 problems and sulfur is just one. There are dozens of sugars, added yeasts, gelatin, and worse in wine that no one is required to tell you about. Shop at a local wine store and ask for low-intervention wines. These wines use as few chemicals as possible, tend to go natural for sugars and yeasts, and are very often “sans soufre” (without sulfur). And for those of you who still think your wine headaches are sulfite-related, these wines are just what the doctor ordered. And by “doctor,” I mean “Me, Marissa A. Ross, Professional Wine Drinker who never gets headaches anymore, just trust me on this.”
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