Christmas means calories says Cate McCurry
IT’S officially festive season now that December is here and as we edge closer to Christmas Day it means plenty of food and drinking – for those of legal age, of course.
December weather coupled with the holiday season always leads to indulging on rich food and calorie laden alcoholic drinks.
This time of year is full of champagne, wine and cocktails and we always tend to be generous to ourselves. We have a few drinks with our lunch or dinner and then it continues on late into the night.
At the end of it all we are few pounds heavier but there are a few ways around it when you are considering your Christmas tipple. Yes, it is holiday season but if you want to be careful and not to overdo it then here’s a few fun facts about alcohol and their calorie contents to shock you into rethinking that third glass of red wine.
Most of us have no idea just how much calories are in our beverages and we don’t tend to include them in our daily intake. That has prompted some health experts to call for all drinks to be labelled with the calories they contain to give consumers a better idea and judgement on how much they want to drink.
All drinks are measured by their ABV – alcohol added by volume – which determines the strength of the drink.
A large glass of wine, which is on average 175ml, has 160 calories. That’s the equivalent amount contained in a can of coke or a snickers bar.
A pint of beer with 4 per cent ABV contains 180 calories.
We also have to look at how many units are in each drink then from there we can estimate its calorie content.
One unit of alcohol is 56 calories and the risk of mixing our drink not only wreaks havoc with our well-being but doubles the amount of calories.
Drinking a cocktail is like eating one doughnut or a cheeseburger depending on how much mixers it has. The more juices will increase the amount of sugar in the cocktail.
A spirit, alcopop or bottle of beer is like eating one slice of pizza which has 237 calories.
One standard drink for women and two standard drinks for men is considered moderate drinking, anything beyond that is classed as binge drinking.
Fear not though, as there are ways of beating the calories. There are drinks out there that have low calories, it’s just up to you to make that swap.
The lowest calorie content drink is vodka, soda water and lime which is often referred to as skinny bitch in pubs and bars.
Vodka has low calories so it all depends on what we choose to mix it with. Alternatives are cranberry juice, sparkling water or apple juice. While I’ll be enjoying a couple of glasses of champers over the Christmas holidays,
I’ll be sticking to the vodka, soda water and lime.
Remember to enjoy yourself but go easy on the alcoholic beverages.
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