It’s the season of spirit–and not just the holiday kind.
Many people like to deck the halls with a cocktail in hand. But when someone passes you a drink, do you know how many calories are in it?
Bartender Matt Warner says some customers quiz him on beer and alcohol calorie counts. “You’re like, c’mon, just pick one,” says Warner, a bartender at Sauce in Lincoln Park. “They don’t really care, they are just trying to make themselves feel better.”
Warner says he knows the “round-about figures” of how many calories are in which beers. But alcohol companies are not required to print nutritional information on labels.
Liquid calories still count, even if they’re kept off bottle labels. Calories from alcohol can easily add to holiday heftiness because the body processes alcohol the same way it processes fat.
“When we consume alcohol, our body reacts as if we just swallowed butter,” says Anne O’Malley, a registered dietician at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Since the body reacts to alcohol as fat, O’Malley recommends only one drink a day for women and two for men. But keeping a one-drink minimum may be hard at a holiday party, where the bar is open and the champagne is flowing. “If you’re going to have more than one drink, alternate it with a cup of Diet 7 Up or water,” O’Malley says.
And if you’re going to have more than one drink, O’Malley recommends keeping an eye on the mixers. Tonic water, Red Bull, non-diet soda and sour mix can add about 75 calories for a combined total of 150 to 200 calories a drink, she says.
Trading tonic water for seltzer and regular soda for diet can help control your calories. The best choice at the bar is wine, followed by light and regular beer. Avoid drinks like pina coladas and wine coolers, which are floating with sugar, O’Malley says.
Almost all bars have diet soda and many now carry sugar-free Red Bull, Warner says. “Get a shorter glass. And go straight up without mixing it with a lot of foo-fooey stuff.”
Keeping count
Beer Calories*
Amstel Light 95
Miller Lite 96
Corona Lite 105
Guinness Draft 125
Dos Equis Lager 140
Miller Genuine Draft 143
Corona Extra 148
Harp 148
Heineken 150
Sam Adams Boston Lager 160
Sam Adams Winter Lager 190
* PER 12-OZ. BOTTLE; SOURCE: BEER COMPANIES
Wine Calories*
White wine 70
Red wine 74
Champagne 92
* PER 3.5-OZ. GLASS; SOURCE: WINE COMPANIES
All about the remix
Mixers can add calories, too. Here’s how to reduce calories:
Drink Calories Alternative
Bacardi Limon with Sprite 200.6 Mix with Diet
Sprite to save
66 calories.
Rum and Coke 188.3 Mix with Diet
Coke to save
58 calories.
Scotch and Soda 126 Cut half an ounce
of scotch to save
31 calories.
Jack and Ginger 256 Switch to Diet
Ginger Ale to save
144 calories.
SOURCE: SPIRITS COMPANIES
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasqualeATSIGNtribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnoppATSIGNtribune.com)
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