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(Dan the Man) wrote in message . com>...
>
> This post rings true for me. I have a coworker whose wife gets
> terrible headaches from wine sulfites. Her solution is to drink
> organic (no-sulfite-added) wines from vintners like Frei or Organic
> Wine Works. My coworker says they taste like dirt; I have never tried
> them myself.
>

I occasionally suffer from "wine headaches" also, but in my case I'm
very certain that they are not caused by sulfites in the wine.

I regularly work with much higher concentrations of sulfites than
would ever be found in wine and do not get a headache. I may suffer
symptoms more like a histamine reaction (nasal congestion, sneezing,
watery eyes, heaviness in chest) that are short lived, but not the
headache. I have also ingested other foods with much higher levels of
sulfites than wine with no adverse effects. The headaches appear to
correlate with red wine consumption even though whites typically
contain more sulfite.

This leads me to believe that it isn't the sulfites in the wine. I
have also had the same wine on multiple occasions with headaches
occurring sometimes and not occurring others. This (at least in my
mind) indicates that it's not just the wine, but that there may be
some other factor involved. I don't know if the other factor is from
other foods consumed, something environmental, or some type of
physiological or psychological condition. I'm trying to correlate the
headaches with possible culprits by noting these things when the
headaches occur.

I think sulfites get the blame because of all the marketing hype in
the US about bad, bad sulfites.

Andy