Today we take a deeper dive into the calories of popular alcoholic drinks
Hard Seltzer vs Beer
Beer and hard seltzer are more similar than you may think. While both drinks are fermented the process does differ slightly. For beer, the sugar is extracted from grains and yeast is added, the mixture is then fermented. In the case of hard seltzer, grains are not required, and brewers often ferment sugar alone.
Beer however often contains gluten making it unsuitable for those following a gluten free diet. While there are gluten free beer brand available selections are often small and hard to come by, hard seltzer on the other hand is naturally gluten free.
Beer is also often heavy on calories and carbs; a can of Budweiser contains 145 calories and 10.6g carbs. Other popular beers have a similar nutritional value; Corona has 148 calories and 14g carbs per bottle, and Heineken has 149 calories and 11g carbs per bottle. Seltzer on the other hand is often lower in carbs and calories.
Hard Seltzer vs Wine
According to Served Drinks, hard seltzer has been a key competitor of the wine industry in recent years. While beer typically has a similar ABV to hard seltzer, wine has a higher ABV at roughly 10-15% per standard glass. While also having a higher ABV, wine s also higher in calories and carbs than hard seltzer.
According to the NHS a standard 175ml glass of 12% wine contains 133 calories, the equivalent to 3 Jaffa Cakes. Wine also contains sulphites, while it has never been proven that sulphites cause hangovers it has been long debated.
Hard Seltzer vs Alcopops
Hard seltzers are often seen as a more grown-up version of popular alcopops such as WKD and Bacardi Breezer. Alcopops have a similar ABV to hard seltzer with many popular brands having an ABV of between 4-5%. Alcopops are also often high in sugar, an investigation found that a 700ml bottle of WKD Blu
e contained 59g of sugar. This is double the maximum daily allowance that is recommended for adults and is the equivalent of six glazed doughnuts from Krispy Kreme.
Alcopops are often criticised as consumers may not be aware of the amount of sugar they are consuming in these drinks. Health-conscious consumers may choose to drink hard seltzer as a low sugar alternative.
While any alcohol consumption cannot be seen as healthy consumers can make conscious decisions to consumer alcoholic beverages with lower calorie and sugar content.
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