I'm an "aspirational" (misuse intended) low-carb dieter. That is, I aspire to live a sustainable low-carb lifestyle. My body is particularly sensitive to carbs--they make me feel bloated, tired, and light headed. For that reason, I try to eat a diet that emphasizes protein, healthy fats, and lower-carb vegetables. This lifestyle requires quite a bit of commitment, but can more or less be managed through smart meal planning and self-discipline. One area where maintaining the lower carb life style is particularly arduous (especially in business school) is alcohol consumption (for that reason, FOAM is the cause of my joy and the bane of my existence). While beer is pretty much out of the question for me (you'll never find that liquid bread in my refrigerator), I've been able to get by with clear liquor. However, sometimes I want an alcoholic beverage more suited to consumption with a good meal. To me, wine is the answer to boozing up the dining experience. Though lower in carbs than beer and fortified liquor, wine is much higher in carbs than most of the clear liquors I've subbed, so you can see my dilemma.
Recently, I came across what I thought might be a solution to my problem. I started getting a lot of sponsored ads on Facebook for FitVine, a brand of "bio-hacked" lower-calorie, lower carbohydrate wines targeted towards people living healthier lifestyles. I'm generally a skeptic of virally marketed products that haven't stood the test of time, nonetheless, I found the brand's audacious claims intriguing. The brand claims to use "dry fermentation" to produce wines with "no residual sugar levels" other than sugar...which is naturally found in the alcohol and is less than 0.2g per 5oz glass." These numbers sounded good to me, but I had no real reference point to contextualize the carb savings. I did a bit of research and found that FitVine's sugar content isn't leaps and bounds better than other dry wines. After doing a bit more research I came to the opinion that the brand is mostly hype with very few substantive benefits over other wines. This research process also made me a bit more comfortable with moderate, occasional wine consumption within the context of an otherwise lower-carb lifestyle.
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ReplyDeleteJames – this is super interesting. Even if FitVine is more hype than actual substantive benefit, I think the idea is brilliant marketing. While I don't think their website or branding is great (or maybe I'm not in the target demo – it seems geared toward fitness enthusiasts), I think the potential for a low-carb wine brand to take off is huge. I believe there is a lot of potential in one geared toward women (Skinnygirl has a low calorie one, though it doesn't focus on carbs). I wish I had thought of it for our final project! For reference, Google searches for "low carb" have nearly quadrupled in the past few years: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2008-02-11%202018-03-11&q=low%20carb. As low carb diets have taken off (paleo, Whole30, Ketogenic), and carbs have replaced fat as the enemy in the eyes of many Americans, it is only logical that wine brands will try to ride this wave too. I think someone will be successful here, even if it's not FitVine.
ReplyDeleteI agree - I find myself reaching for wine over beer for the exact same reason (though I haven't totally shunned beer yet). When you mentioned FitVine, I shared similar suspicions, but I was still hopeful that they uncovered some great secret. I think a key to some of this marketing has to do with how a beverage makes you feel physically rather than what the nutrition label says. It's much easier to associate beer with carbs rather than wine with carbs. After drinking beer, the carbonation mixed with the high levels of carbs doesn't exactly make you feel fit. Wine, as long as consumed in moderation, has less of that effect on me. Though I'm not entirely optimistic that anything can be done to actually produce high quality, low carb wine, I think that there is high potential here for marketing wine, especially drier wines, as a better alternative to beer for health reasons.
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