Here's the truth you should know before you get tipsy at your next social gathering.
It's time to hang out with some friends over a few drinks but you are tugged by a pang of guilt over loading up on the calories?
In any common dining setting, where beer and wine are usually served with food, most people who are calorie-conscious would tend to choose wine over beer. The reason: people tend to believe that wine contains less calories than beer. But is that necessarily true?
Alcohol itself contains calories
If you are still unaware of it, alcohol itself is laden with calories. To be precise, one gram of alcohol contains seven calories — and that's almost as high in calories as a gram of fat, which contains nine calories.
That goes to say that a beverage that is higher in alcoholic content, or alcohol by volume (ABV) in technical terms, would naturally be laden with more calories, compared to those with lower alcoholic content.
To put things into perspective, the ABV of a red wine would typically fall between 12% and 15%, whereas that of a beer would usually hover around 5% or so.
But does that then imply that you should chuck the wine and reach straight for a beer?
Calories don't just come from alcohol
Interestingly, a pint of beer (an imperial pint amounting to around 568ml) with an ABV of 5% would churn up a whopping 239 calories, whereas a standard glass of dry table wine (typically 150ml) with an ABV of between 11% and 14% would only add around 120 to 130 calories to your calorie counter.
While this may seem counterintuitive, there is actually a very natural reason why a beer would come with this much more calories than a glass of wine.
The fundamental reason why beers generally contain more calories than wines is the leftover carbohydrates found in beer, as the starch molecules from the grains that go into making the beverage may not have been entirely broken down into simple sugars during the fermentation process. And as the sugar content in most wines is fairly low, this simply means that beers would naturally contain a lot more carbohydrates than most wines.
Even as one gram of carbohydrates adds less calories to your diet than alcohol does — four calories per gram of carbohydrates versus seven calories per gram of alcohol — it will make a massive difference to your calorie intake when you add up all those additional carbs.
Not all wines and beers are made equal
However, that is not to conclude that you should only stick to wine if you want to drink an alcohol beverage, and at the same time, keep watch on your calorie intake.
Different types of wine may contain varying amounts of carbohydrates and calories. For instance, a typical glass of red wine would contain 3.8 grams of carbohydrates (which generates 125 calories), while a glass of dry dessert wine would contain 17.2 grams of carbohydrates and come with 224 calories.
The worst calorie bomb of all wines would almost certainly be fortified wines, such as Port, Sherry, Madeira, and Marsala. These wines, which contain high residual sugar levels, are both high in alcoholic content (their ABV range between 17% and 20%) and carbohydrates. A glass of Port, for example, would contain a total of 20.2 grams of carbohydrates, which works out to be a staggering 236 calories!
On the foamy end of the spectrum of alcoholic beverages, different beers also contain varying amounts of calories. For instance, a pint of standard strength lager would only contain 170 calories, whereas a high ABV stout would generate as much as 210 calories. So, your choice of beer would also matter a lot, when it comes to calorie-counting.
It is interesting to note here that if you were to choose a pint of standard strength lager over a glass of Port, you will actually be consuming less calories drinking a beer than if you were to drink a glass of wine.
Smart drinking for weight-watchers
If you are a weight-watcher but still want your occasional dose of wine or beer, it is still possible to have your cake and eat it too — provided that you make the right choices.
Ideally, you should be going for a light lager if it's a beer that you want. But if you should fancy a wine, go for a dry red wine that is lower in sugar content and ABV, such as a Gamay, Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon, or a dry white wine like a Pinot Grigio or a Chardonnay, or a dry rosé wine.
In addition, you may be overjoyed to know that there are low-calorie beer and wine options available too.
Low-calorie beers are produced with an additional enzyme added during the brewing or fermentation process, which breaks down all of the starch molecules into simple sugars, so there are no remaining carbohydrates. Low-calorie wines, on the other hand, are made from grapes of lower sugar content, which naturally results in wines with a lower alcoholic and residual sugar content.
It pays to choose your drinks wisely. So, make the smart choices and you will be able to save the calories while enjoying the revelry!
References:
Commentaires