Red Wine Headaches: The Real Culprit Caught at Last!

Red Wine Headaches: The Real Culprit Caught at Last!

From:
http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/natalie_maclean/index.html

The University of California, Berkeley, researchers have invented a device to detect the chemicals in wine that give some of us those pounding headaches.

The culprits are biogenic amines, such as tyramine and histamine, and are naturally found in wine and other fermented, aged and pickled foods such as chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and cured meats. They can also cause high blood pressure, heart palpitations and elevated adrenaline.

The device ...

... is the size of a briefcase now but the inventor Richard Mathies is working to develop one that's smaller than a PDA so that wine lovers and gourmands can easily test their favorite foods using just a drop or small amount of the food before consuming them. Mathies has even suggested that winemakers put the amine levels on wine bottle labels.

I think that this could be an incredible resource for wine lovers. It could also reduce the confusion over what's causing headaches, as many people inaccurately attribute them to sulphites and/or tannins.

Would you buy such a device if it were reasonably priced and made in the smaller format?