A mulled wine helps against the winter cold at the Christmas market – this myth at least persists. However, you can find out here why you should avoid mulled wine, especially when you are cold.
Mulled wine is one of the classic hot drinks of the Christmas season. Many people also find warm wine to be an effective protection against the cold. After all, one sip immediately creates a pleasant, warm feeling in the body. However, this is a fallacy. No matter whether grog, Glögg, mulled wine or cocoa with a shot – alcohol causes our body to cool down even more.
That’s why alcohol doesn’t warm you up in winter
According to the Federal Center for Health Education (BzgA), the fact that we find alcoholic drinks warming is because alcohol dilates the blood vessels in the skin. This causes more blood to flow to the surface of the body. This makes us feel warmer for a short time. But our body actually only transports heat from the inside to the outside. It removes heat from the internal organs and instead transfers it to the surface of the skin. From there we quickly release them into the air. As a result, our body temperature decreases, we cool down and are more susceptible to colds because, due to the restricted blood circulation, fewer immune cells reach the mucous membranes and can protect us from cold viruses.
The cooling effect caused by alcohol is of course particularly great when we drink alcoholic drinks outdoors and at low temperatures. Mulled wine is therefore a particularly bad idea at the Christmas market.
It becomes particularly dangerous when people who are heavily intoxicated spend time outside in the winter. Because of the alcohol, they no longer feel the heat loss and they cool down more and more unnoticed. In the worst case scenario, they can freeze to death.
This is how you really get warm: mulled wine alternatives
If you want to warm up with a drink, it’s better to use non-alcoholic hot drinks. At many Christmas markets you can find warm apple or pear juice with cinnamon or ginger as an alternative to mulled wine. The spices also warm you up with their spicy aromas. According to the BzgA, hot spices stimulate blood circulation in your organs and thus ensure more warmth inside the body.
Of course, you don’t have to go without a mulled wine. After all, there are also alcohol-free recipes. You can find more recipes for aromatic and warming hot drinks in winter here, for example:
- Apple punch
- Children’s punch
- Chai tea
- Make your own ginger tea
- Rosemary tea
There is another advantage if you avoid mulled wine when you visit the Christmas market: you won’t have a hangover the next day. In addition, alcohol causes harm from the first sip.
Edited by Lea Hermann
Read more on Techzle\.com:
- Christmas spirit: 3 tips for Advent
- Reacting to alcohol poisoning: These are the symptoms
- Mulled wine: It tastes best at this temperature
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