Every now and then someone tells me they don?t like red wine and prefer white wine because the sulfites in red wine gives them a headache ? commonly known as the Red Wine Headache (RWH). The label ?WARNING: Contains Sulfites? seems to justify their claim. The question is do the sulfites in red wine really cause headaches? Sulfites are used as a natural preservative in wine. The reason it is called a ?natural? preservative is because sulfites are a natural byproduct of the fermentation process. More sulfite is often added by the winery as potassium metabisulfite. This added preservative allows the wine to age over many years; otherwise it would quickly turn to vinegar. Organic wines have this aging problem. All red wine contains sulfites, even the ones labeled ?no sulfite added?. So do all white wines ? white wines have much more sulfite on average. All wines con sell house fast tain 40-80 mg/liter of sulfites on average. Organic wines contain less, but they still have sulfite in them. You cannot make wine without making sulfites. It does not matter which country the wine originates from. The US and Australia list sulfite warnings on their labels, but the Europeans are not required to do so. European wines still contain the same amount of sulfites. Sulfites are also used in dried fruit; no one claims that they got a headache from a bag of dried apricots. Pancake syrup typically contains more sulfite than red wine. The human body also produces sulfites through normal biochemical processes, about 1000 mg per day. Some studies have shown that some people can have strong reactions to sulfites. Slightly less than 1% of the population lacks an enzyme to break down the sulfites. In comparison, peanut allergies affect about 4% of the population.