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Calorie counts on alcoholic beverages?

Posted on Feb 19th 2007 1:16PM by Brian White

Filed Under: Diet & Weight Loss, Nutrition & Supplements

Should the manufacturers of alcoholic drinks and wine be required to list calorie counts (or even nutrition facts labels) on their products?

In Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA), the race is on to communicate the calorie content of alcoholic beverages should to drinkers.

Is this a good idea for any nation in the world? Most likely it is, although I doubt alcohol abusers would take note of it regularly. Those who drink in moderate levels would probably pay attention and maybe even adjust their drinking accordingly.

Would you?

Source

5 Comment

Tags: Alcohol calories, AlcoholCalories, calorie counts, CalorieCounts

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

rayfromthebronx 10-13-2010 @ 8:38AM

I've been on nutrisystem for 8 days now. I will tell you that without a doubt the hardest part has been not drinking alcohol. I went to watch a football game on sunday and I went fishing on monday and I was going out of my mind. I must admit not drinking has expedited my weight-loss progress. Although I miss drinking (and probably will return once the weight is off), I must admit it's a monumental setback to anyone trying to lose weight because of it's HUGE calorie content. 1 long island iced tea = 780 calories, 1 margarita = 550 calories. . .etc

reandpjlust 10-13-2010 @ 8:54AM

One's body does not store alcohol, only the carbohydrates in the drink count.
Drink 200 proof alcohol with a very high calory count and nothing happens other than loosing control of your mind. A piece of wood has high calories, but your body can not do anything with it. As I understand it, the body treats alcohol like fat, which may be bad in many ways, but not necessarily put on pounds.

Tim UF 2-19-2007 @ 1:57PM

i do think they should. it would give more weight (pun intended) behind the "light" beers.

And it'll be a nice shock to the drinkers of those sweet malt drinks (smirnoff ice,etc), when they see the calories in them, maybe they'll think twice about drinking a sixpack!

Mark Sisson 2-19-2007 @ 3:47PM

I have long been frustrated by the lack of ingredient/nutrition information on alcohol and cigarettes. It's long overdo. However, this brings up an issue that is important for anyone who cares about health to consider. Many people are now aware of the dangers of excess sugar and refined carbohydrates (diabetes, obesity, poor mood and mental clarity). But we tend to overlook the fact that alcohol is not only toxic to our systems, it's a simple carbohydrate! I don't think relying on alcohol is a good method for getting antioxidants. There are healthier antioxidant sources that aren't recipes for diabetes and addiction. While moderation is a virtue, I am hesitant to recommend drinking in moderation to anybody as a potential "healthy" activity. Individuals vary in their discipline, tastes and tendencies, but on the whole, we ought to treat alcohol as something to be careful with - and adding in nutrition information is a good first step. Anything sold for consumption by humans ought to have all the facts clearly visible. No brainer.
My health blog: www.marksdailyapple.com