Can You Have Your Cake and Drink Wine, Too?

Summary

Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Episode: “Can You Have Your Cake and Drink Wine, Too?”
Date: June 16, 2026

---

Episode Overview

In this interactive episode, Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers real listener health questions about sugars, alcohol, and everyday habits that might affect our wellbeing. With expertise from dietitians and food scientists, Dr. Gupta explores whether the sugar in wine is worse than regular sweets, and tackles viral claims about honey becoming toxic when added to hot tea. Practical, science-backed advice – with Gupta’s trademark relatability – guides listeners toward moderation and myth-busting clarity.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Comparing Sugar in Wine vs. Sweets

(Starts at 02:25)

Sugar Content Breakdown

• Dr. Gupta starts by clarifying how much sugar is really in wine versus common foods:
  • Dry red table wine (5 oz): ~1 gram of sugar (about 1/4 tsp)
  • 12 oz can of soda: ~37 grams (about 9 tsp)
  • Cheesecake slice: ~18 grams (about 4.5 tsp)
  • Banana (medium): ~15 grams (about 3.5–4 tsp)
• Most of the sugar in wine grapes is fermented into alcohol; leftover is "residual sugar."
• Not all sugar is equal in terms of processing: wine’s natural sugar vs. added sugar in many foods.

“You can’t have wine without any sugar, just as a fun fact. Why? Because the fermentation process literally turns the sugar into alcohol … any sugar that remains after fermentation is called residual sugar.”
— Dr. Sanjay Gupta (02:25)

The Metabolism Factor

• Different metabolic pathways: The liver prioritizes metabolizing alcohol over other nutrients.
• Dietitian Natalie Makari:

  “The process slows down the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates, and it can often result in them being stored as fat.”
  (04:29)

• Alcohol distracts the liver, causing less efficient fat breakdown; can potentially promote weight gain and abdominal obesity.
• Alcohol increases appetite and disrupts satiety hormones, which may contribute further to overeating.

Moderation & Recommendations

• American Heart Association:
  • Men: No more than 36 grams of added sugar daily (9 tsp)
  • Women: 25 grams (6 tsp)
• Dietary Guidelines: Limit to 10 grams of added sugar per meal.
• Natural sugars (e.g., fruit): Not formally limited; generally safe in recommended portions.
• Alcohol: Processed by body very differently; moderation emphasized.

“Hope you can enjoy both your sweets and your wine, but do it, as always, in moderation.”
— Dr. Sanjay Gupta (06:39)

---

2. Does Honey Become Toxic in Hot Tea?

(Starts at 09:12)

Origin of the Claim

• Viral myth: Honey plus hot water “turns toxic,” commonly circulated on TikTok and other platforms.
• Claims center around formation of HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural), a compound that can form when sugars are heated.

What Science Says

• Expert voice: Dr. Kantha Shelke, food scientist, Johns Hopkins
• HMF is a byproduct of the Maillard reaction (same one that browns toast and sears meat).
• HMF is present in many foods (coffee, baked goods, jams, cereals, UHT milk), not just honey.
• Commercial honey is regulated to contain less than 0.3 mg HMF/teaspoon.
• Adding honey to hot tea dilutes it and lowers temperature quickly; HMF formed is minuscule, far below any harmful level.

“Dr. Shelke estimates that the average person consumes between 4 and 30 milligrams of HMF a day from foods that no one should consider dangerous. That context is important.”
— Dr. Sanjay Gupta (11:09)

Truth About Heating Honey

• High, prolonged heat can reduce some of honey's beneficial nutrients.
• Brief exposure (e.g., stirring into tea) is not a risk for toxicity.
• Caution: Honey is never safe for infants under 12 months due to botulism risk.
• Watch calories: 1 teaspoon = ~21 calories.

“Go ahead, enjoy honey in your tea. The HMF exposure is trivial compared to what you’re already getting from regular items: Your morning toast, your baked goods, breakfast cereals, your coffee.”
— Dr. Sanjay Gupta (12:55)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It's very hard to do apples to apples with those because, you know, a gram of alcohol and a gram of a cookie or some sort of sweet something is gonna look very different.”
  — Natalie Makari, RD (04:08)
• “The liver prioritizes breaking down alcohol, and this process temporarily slows your body's metabolism because the body is trying to break down the alcohol first…”
  — Natalie Makari, RD (04:29)
• “Like many health claims on social media, this one contains a grain of truth that is then wrapped up in a bunch of hype.”
  — Dr. Sanjay Gupta (09:52)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Listener question: Sugar in wine vs. sweets – 02:25
• Dietitian explains alcohol metabolism – 04:08
• Guidelines for sugar and alcohol consumption – 05:44
• Listener question: Honey in hot water/tea – 08:42
• Debunking honey toxicity myth with food scientist – 09:50
• Summary on honey safety and advice – 12:55

---

Episode Takeaways

• Wine vs. sweets: Moderation is key for both; the metabolic pathway and context are as important as the sugar content itself.
• Alcohol: Even moderate regular consumption can impact metabolism and lead to weight gain.
• Honey in tea: No toxicity risk for adults; brief heating is not a problem, but do not give honey to infants under 1 year.
• General advice: Be skeptical of health claims on social media—focus on balanced, evidence-guided choices.

Dr. Gupta’s approachable responses and expert guests deliver actionable health clarity while busting popular myths—making this an essential listen for anyone navigating modern health questions.

Transcript

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. Thank you so much for joining us. This is the show where I get to hear from you and I get to address your health questions. We got a couple of interesting questions today. Pretty thought provoking. My producer Jennifer is back with us today. Who do we have first?

[Jennifer (Producer)]

Hi, Sanjay. So today we have a listener calling in from Toronto, Canada and she has this ongoing discussion with her friend about sugar intake.

[Listeners (Bridget, Michelle)]

Hi Sanjay. My name's Bridget. I'm calling from Toronto, Canada. So my friend is always telling me that I eat too much sugar and I disagree with him. However, he has a glass of red wine most evenings with his meal, which I say is worse than any kind of sugar amount of sugar I could be eating. Could you weigh in and let us know your thoughts on this?

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

Okay, Bridget, that is an interesting question. Not sure I want to get between you and your friend necessarily, but this is a topic worth discussing. The idea of comparing the amount of sugar in wine with the amount in food or a sweet treat. So how much sugar is in a glass of wine? Is it better or worse for you than what you might get from food? I'll break it down for you and I won't sugarcoat the truth when we come back.

[Google Health Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Google Health. Stop chasing someone else's definition of health. What matters is what's healthy for you. Google Health offers a new kind of coach built with Gemini for effortless tracking, sleep insights and holistic coaching tailored to you. Visit googlestore.com to learn more and start a new relationship with your health. Requires Google Account, Google Health app Internet and Google Health Premium subscription. Features subject to change availability and results vary. Not intended for medical purposes. Works independently of Gemiini apps. Check responses for accuracy.

[Apple Watch Announcer]

If we knew more about our sleep, what would we do differently? Would we go to bed at a consistent time or take steps to reduce interruptions to our sleep? With sleep score, Apple Watch measures your bedtime consistency, interruptions and sleep duration. Then every morning it combines these factors into an easy to understand score from 1 to 100. So you'll know how to take the quality of your sleep from okay to very high. Know your sleep score with Apple Watch iPhone 11 or later required.

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

Okay, we are back with Bridget's question about whether the sugar in a glass of wine is worse for you than the sugar you eat every day. First of all, let's talk about the sugar in wine. What kind of sugar are we talking about? We are generally talking about traditional wine made from grapes. Let's start there. Grapes are Pretty high in sugar, primarily glucose and fructose, but it is natural sugar, not added sugar. Okay, tuck away that particular fact. Also, you know you can't have wine without any sugar, just as a fun fact. Why? Because the fermentation process literally turns the sugar into alcohol. And any sugar that remains after fermentation is called residual sugar. Now, if we look at the amount of sugar in wine, it doesn't necessarily look bad. So take your dry red table wine as an example. According to the usda, the amount of sugar in a five ounce serving of red table wine is about one gram. That's about a quarter teaspoon. Now, that's different, for example, than a sweet wine or something like a port, which can have much more sugar than dry red table wine. Now, also compare that to a 12 ounce can of soda, which can contain nearly 37 grams of sugar, or about 9 teaspoons. A piece of cheesecake, nearly 18 grams of sugar, or about 4.5 teaspoons. One medium banana has about 15 grams of sugar, or almost 4 teaspoons. But even when you consider those numbers, there's more to the story. It's not that simple.

[Dietitian Natalie Makari]

It's very hard to do apples to apples with those because, you know, a gram of alcohol and a gram of a cookie or some sort of sweet something is gonna look very different.

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

That's dietitian Natalie Makari. She works with clients in her North Carolina practice, and we decided to reach out to her to have a little chat about this.

[Dietitian Natalie Makari]

What happens whenever you drink alcohol is the liver prioritizes breaking down alcohol, and this process temporarily slows your body's metabolism because the body is trying to break down the alcohol first before it can break down any food that you may have consumed prior to having the alcohol or with alcohol. So the process slows down the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates, and it can often result in them being stored as fat.

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

So that basically means you can't necessarily compare the amount of sugar in wine with the amount of sugar and sweets because your body is metabolizing them in different ways, and that makes a difference. Alcohol essentially distracts the liver, makes your metabolism less efficient, and that could lead to problems, including potential weight gain. First off, when your body is busy with breaking down alcohol, it's going to disrupt certain chemical reactions that would otherwise be breaking down fat. So in the long term, it could increase total body fat. That can lead to abdominal obesity. Drinking alcohol can also boost your appetite because by increasing hormones in your gut and interfering with brain signals that Normally, tell your brain that you are full, that you've had enough to eat. So there is a lot going on with that single glass of wine. And there's another thing to think about. We should carefully consider how much of either added sugar or alcohol we are already getting in our diet, because truth is, neither is really good for us. So to give you some numbers, American Heart association recommends men get no more than 36 grams of added sugar a day. That's about nine teaspoons of sugar. For women, they say 25 grams, six teaspoons of sugar. And the USDA, which puts out the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, recommends that one meal should contain no more than 10 grams of added sugar. So don't just pile up all your added sugar in one specific meal. Now, there is no specific limit on how much natural sugar you can consume every day. And generally speaking, that's not considered bad for your health. In fact, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating two cups of fruit every day. And as for alcohol, again, remember the way your body's going to metabolize, this is going to be really different. And that may be something worth paying attention to. So, Bridget, thank you for bringing the sugar debate with your friend to this show. Hope that helps. Hope you can enjoy both your sweets and your wine, but do it, as always, in moderation. Thanks for calling in. Okay, we're going to take a quick break here, but when we come back, we will continue the conversation about sweets. Putting honey in hot water, what does that do? Some say it turns it toxic. We'll talk about it after the break.

[Jennifer (Producer)]

If you've ever blasted synth beats from your boombox or burned CDs for your besties, this one's for you. As people get older, much like their music tastes, their health needs change. AG1 is the simple daily health drink designed to deliver over 75 essential daily nutrients in pre and probiotics to support energy, digestion, and mood. So you can make the most out of every decade and dance break. Learn [e-mail]

[Tropicana Announcer]

Ever wonder where Tropicana got its name? The Tropics. And every time you enjoy a glass, you're not just drinking juice. You're taking a trip, stepping into sunshine, and embarking on a flavorful journey into the tropics, where ripe fruit is crafted into wildly delicious juice. And the best part, no passport required. Tropicana. Give life some juice.

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

And we are back with paging Dr. Gupta. Jennifer is here. Who do we have next?

[Jennifer (Producer)]

Okay, next is a listener calling from California with an interesting question about honey.

[Listeners (Bridget, Michelle)]

Hi, Fonjay. My name is Michelle. So I started drinking more chamomile tea at night with me my honey in an effort to cut back on the alcohol. So, which has been lovely. But now I'm hearing that if I have honey in hot water that it actually makes the honey turn toxic. So now I am wondering if I can no longer enjoy my tea with honey habit at night.

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

Okay, Michelle, first of all, as you just heard, cutting back on alcohol, that's a good idea. And chamomile tea, that's a good choice to drink at night. Studies have shown it can ease anxiety and improve sleep. But can adding honey be potentially problematic? A lot of people interestingly ask this question. It's all over TikTok. Did you know honey can turn toxic

[Listeners (Bridget, Michelle)]

if you heat it or if you

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

eat it with the wrong combinations of foods? It's a very potent medicine.

[Shell V Power Nitro Plus Announcer]

I bet that you did not know that eating honey is toxic.

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

Honey does become toxic at certain temperatures

[Dietitian Natalie Makari]

or time over 104.

[Dr. Sanjay Gupta]

So is this true? Like many health claims on social media, this one contains a grain of truth that is then wrapped up in a bunch of hype. So I decided to ask Dr. Kantha Shulke, a food scientist and a senior lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, to give us some insight into this. Now, she started off by telling us that there's this popular idea that's circulating on social media that's essentially focusing on a chemical compound called hmf, hydroxymethylfurferol. Now, studies have shown that HMF can theoretically be harmful to our health by doing things such as damaging DNA and causing irritation to the mucous membranes. Now, HMF is found in many foods. Coffee, baked goods, dry fruits, jam, breakfast cereal, and even ultra high temperature milk. It's a common byproduct of the Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction between amino acids and sugar that happens when certain foods are heated. It's what gives food rich brown colors and creates new flavors. So think, for example, a seared burger or a steak or the crust of freshly baked bread. Now, HMFs can form in honey too. And that brings us back to the question. In fresh honey, the amount of HMF is negligible. But HMFs can form if honey is stored for long times. HMF can be used as an indicator of honey quality. In fact, regulations cap HMF in commercial honey to less than 0.3 milligrams per teaspoon. And HMFS can also form in honey after exposure to high temperatures. But adding honey to hot water or tea is a Different situation. The temperature drops when honey is mixed into the tea and most importantly, the honey is diluted into the whole cup. When it comes to HMF levels, you should also know that honey is far from the worst offender. For example, instant coffee contains over four times more HMF than honey does. So Dr. Schelke estimates that the average person consumes between 4 and 30 milligrams of HMF a day from foods that no one should consider dangerous. That context is important. Now remember what I said. There is a grain of truth wrapped in the honey hype circulating on social media. And here it is. Honey contains beneficial nutrients, enzymes, antioxidants. It's known to have antibacterial and anti inflammatory properties. Heating honey may diminish or destroy some of those beneficial qualities. But it depends how high and how long you heat the honey. Different nutrients may degrade, others do not. Bottom line is this Dr. Schelke says, go ahead, enjoy honey in your tea. The HMF exposure, this particular compound that people are worried about, that HMF exposure is trivial compared to what you're already getting from regular items. Your morning toast, your baked goods, breakfast cereals, your coffee. But there are two issues with honey that I will mention here. First of all, never give honey to infants under 12 months old because it may contain spores that could cause infant botulism. And keep an eye on the calories. One teaspoon of honey contains about 21 calories. That was an interesting one. I actually didn't know that much about heating honey. I want to thank Dr. Kanta Schelke for informing all of us. Michelle, thank you for raising the issue. Feel free to sip your sweet, warm chamomile tea without concern. Thanks again for calling in. And that is a wrap for today's episode. Thanks to all of you for sending in your health questions. I love hearing from you. And remember, no question is too big or too small. We've started a real conversation here with paging Dr. Gupta and I love going back and forth, so keep them coming. We might just answer your question on our next show. Reach out, record a voice memo, email it to pagingdr.gupta.com that's paging Dr.gupta.com or give us a call 470-396-0832 and leave a message. Thanks so much for listening.

[Shell V Power Nitro Plus Announcer]

What if your drive was fueled with more like more protection for more time on the road? Shell V Power Nitro plus provides more protection for longer lasting engines. So it helps keep your engine running like new for whatever drive is ahead. Shelvi Power Nitro plus engine performance that lasts compared to minimum detergent gasoline. With continuous use of Shelby Power Nitro plus and gasoline direct injection engines, actual effects and benefits may vary. See Shell Us More Dash Protection for more information.

[Grainger Announcer]

When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant, you keep production lines moving and quality on track because there is no room for slowdowns. With Grainger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts and hard to find parts, you can get what you need fast and all in one place, so nothing gets in the way of getting the job done. Call 1-800-GRAINGER clickranger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.