A Guide to Summer Drinks with Lower Calories
When the weather is nice and you are eating outside it is often easy to fancy an alcoholic drink but this isn’t always ideal on your weight loss plan or diet so here I want to talk to you about low-calorie, low alcohol and alcohol-free drinks you could try.
This article includes some drinks I was sent to try out and share with you as free-of-charge PR samples.
Why do we need low-calorie and low-alcohol drinks?
Drinking alcohol, or certainly, wine, has always been associated with social life or at the very least with a good meal, and so it would be a pity to have to go completely without it.
But unfortunately, even doctors say that a glass of red wine a day can actually be beneficial to one’s circulatory system, including the heart.
That said, more than this can not only be detrimental to one’s liver and other parts of the body but certainly detrimental to your purse or even your life if you get caught by the police driving over the limit.
Low-alcohol vs low-calorie vs alcohol-free
If you are trying to reduce your alcohol consumption in general, are driving, or are dieting it is difficult to know what you can drink that isn’t just Pepsi Max or diet drinks.
Did you know many low-alcohol drinks are also low in calories? This doesn’t apply to all drinks but it is often worth looking at those as a starting point.
Additionally, it is important to consider the ingredients of the drink you would enjoy. Anything creamy will always inevitably be higher in calories than other drinks as cream isn’t too healthy, is it?
Choosing healthier beers
For those people who are into beer, there is nowadays a way around this problem which is to consume non-alcoholic beer.
20 years ago there were one or two alcohol-free beers and they were often referred to as being more like dishwater. Now the variety is considerably bigger.
There is also a huge range of lower-calorie beers such as Bud Light which you can consider as an alternative to Budweiser.
Some good beer choices
Doom Bar Zero is an amber ale that is low in calories and alcohol-free. A 500ml bottle has just 65kcls.
Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5% is a citrus pale ale which is extremely low in alcohol but not completely alcohol-free and a 500ml bottle is 115kcal.
Choosing Low-alcohol Wines
To give a rough guide, the richer woodier wines, which the experts consider are the best wines, but this is not necessarily true in all cases, have an alcohol content of around 18%.
This is quite high in alcohol, so more than one glass of this sort of wine would for sure get your head feeling a little light and make your reflexes react a little slower!
But to go to the other end of the scale, there are a few wines that can be found on the market with an alcohol content of as little as 9%, which is a fantastic reduction of half the alcohol content.
One glass of this sort of wine will do less harm to your liver and is just the right amount of alcohol to make you relax and enjoy yourself a little bit without going over the top in any way.
Most often, these wines with such a low alcohol content are referred to as table wines, and so when you want to look for them in your supermarket or wine store, it is usually the ‘table wine’ section that you should direct yourself towards.
All wines have the alcohol content marked on the label on the bottle. You will see the sign ‘alc. 18% Vol’ or whatever percentage it is, with the word ‘alc’ before it and the word ‘Vol.’ after it. So always search for the lowest amount, such as 9% or 10%.
You will find nowadays that even in restaurants, some low-alcohol content wines will probably be kept in stock and so you can always ask the waiter if you can order one.
Hopefully, in the future low alcohol volume wines will be further perfected and produced and especially if the demand for such wines becomes greater due to the ever-increasing restrictions on alcohol consumption.
There are very few lower-calorie wines and I would always recommend instead swapping for a completely alcohol-free wine as the choice is wider. That said, Lambrini Skinny is good if you are a fan of Lambrini (I am not!).
Lambrini Skinny is 3.5% vol and a 250ml glass is 58 kcal or if you follow Slimming World Skinny Lambini is 3 syns for a large glass of 250ml.
Alcohol-free wines
In my experience, there are more choices of alcohol-free wines on the market than there are of low-alcohol wines.
The advantage of completely alcohol-free wines is that you can enjoy them as much as you like if you are driving, they are usually lower in calories if you are dieting, and even kids can have them!
Some low-calorie and alcohol-free wines to consider
For sparkling wine, Sinzero Brut is a great alcohol-free fizz from Chile and at 12 Kcal for 100ml, you could enjoy a 250ml glass of fizz for just 30 kcal!
Sinzero Chardonnay is a great alcohol-free white wine from Chile that is just 20 kcal per 100ml so a large 250ml glass would only be 50 Kcal.
If you are a fan of rose wine and have struggled to find a rose wine that is tasty and low in calories then Sinzero have you covered. At 22 Kcal for 100ml, this Sinzero rose wine is just 55 Kcal for a 250ml glass.
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the most popular red wines so if you have a preference for this and are looking for a low-calorie red wine the Sinzero one would be perfect.
At 32 Kcal for 100ml it is a little higher than the white wine choices, but this is to be expected as in the alcohol versions red wine is usually slightly higher in calories than white. You could still have a 250ml glass of Sinzero Cabernet Sauvignon for 80 Kcal.
Spirits and Liqueurs with mixers
Spirits are usually reasonably low in calories with vodka at 78 kcal for 25ml, gin around 60 kcal for 25ml and Whiskey around 50 kcal for 25ml.
Liqueurs and other spirits are usually lower in alcohol and higher in calories as they often contain sugar. Some are significantly worse than others, here are a few to give you some examples.
- Archers peach schnapps 59 kcal for 25ml
- Baileys 175 Kcal for 50ml
- Malibu 50 Kcal for 25ml
- Disaronno 85 Kcal for 25ml
- Disaronno Velvet 107 Kcal for 25ml
Making Cocktails to be low calorie
Whether you like cocktails such as Manhattan, Pina Colada or Mojito or prefer to mix a liqueur with lemonade or soda water to make your own drink there are a few things you need to consider.
Try to choose well-flavoured spirits or liqueurs
Many flavoured spirits or liqueurs are no more calories than their non-flavoured alternatives but avoid the need to add so many ingredients to make a good cocktail. Obviously, you need to check this for your favourites but it is definitely worth considering.
Here are a few of my favourite low-calorie spirits or liqueurs to use for cocktails.
Rooster Rojo smoked pineapple tequila is 66.5 calories per 25ml. Enjoying it in a margarita would be a nice change or perhaps make a coconut and pineapple margarita with this, malibu and some lime juice?
Kwai Feh Lychee Liqueur is a great choice either added to a cocktail or enjoyed with lemonade.
A 25ml measure of this is 49 Kcal which is a great choice as a low-calorie liqueur and low-calorie lemonade if you are bored of the usual drinks! It is so refreshing in the summer too I promise you!
Other liqueurs like this Manchester Drinks Co Mystical Unicorn Gin liqueur are lovely but taste very sweet and I couldn’t find the calories for it so I would always choose to avoid something like that over the choices above if I am watching my weight.
Gin liqueurs vary so much in their calories that I personally, would prefer to choose something I can see the calories of easily, wouldn’t you?
Tips for making your own cocktails and adding mixers to spirits.
For low-calorie cocktails, there are a few things you need to consider. Firstly, any cocktail that uses cream, sugar or syrup (eg grenadine, agave etc) of any kind will be adding a good number of calories and should be avoided if possible.
If you need to use fruit juice in a cocktail then try to find a low-sugar version if possible or consider swapping it for a low-calorie fizzy drink.
If you are required to use tonic water, lemonade, cola or other fizzy drinks then opt for the low-calorie version and you will have the same taste for significantly fewer calories.
If a cocktail requires champagne, prosecco or wine then consider a lower-alcohol version which is usually lower in calories or an alcohol-free option.
If you prefer not to change the cocktail recipe in any way then another way to reduce the calories in cocktails is to alternate them with soft drinks such as Pepsi Max to reduce the calories you consume over the course of the evening.
Premixed drinks
Premixed drinks usually have their calorie count listed on them which is so handy if you are trying to be healthy and you can choose then whatever works best for you.
Most of the premixed drinks I have seen have alcohol in but I found a few non-alcoholic premixed cocktails you should consider. All are under 99 Kcal too.
Mocktails Caffe Carnivale Espresso 0% Martini 99Kcal – alcohol-free espresso martini
Mocktails Sevilla Red Sansgria 70 Kcal – alcohol-free sangria
Mocktails Mockarita 80 Kcal – alcohol-free margarita
Mocktails Karma Sucra Mochapolitan 80 Kcal – alcohol-free cosmopolitan
Mocktails Scottish lemonade Mockscow Mule 95 Kcals – alcohol-free Moscow Mule.
Check the range of Mocktails like those below.
Calculating syns for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks on Slimming World
As there are no free foods in drinks such as those I have mentioned here there is only one way to calculate the syns in wine, work out the syns in a beer or syn your cocktail. It is simply by knowing the number of calories in the drink and for every 20 kcals you count 1 syn.
Be sure to check with your Slimming World consultant or on the app if you are unsure.
Drinking alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks on other weight loss plans
Most weight loss plans count alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions as a treat of some kind but they will ask you to count different aspects of it. For most, it will involve calories so the information above should help you.
Always check with your plan for an accurate gauge as to how drinking could affect the plan you are following.
I want to remind you to drink responsibly and know your limits. For support visit DrinkAware.