– As explained above, beer’s sugar content may vary depending on its initial gravity and the type of yeast strain used to ferment it. Yet, beer manufacturers may include other sugar-containing ingredients in their recipes, such as honey and corn syrup, to give their beer a distinctive flavor.
- Nevertheless, labeling regulations for alcoholic beverages in the United States do not require manufacturers to report the sugar content of their products ( 10, 11 ).
- While some state the carb content, most only disclose their alcohol content.
- Thus, determining how much sugar your favorite beer contains may be a difficult task.
Still, the following list includes the sugar and carb contents found in 12 ounces (355 ml) of various types of beer, as well as those of some popular brands ( 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 ):
- Regular beer: 12.8 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar
- Light beer: 5.9 grams of carbs, 0.3 grams of sugar
- Low carb beer: 2.6 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar
- Non-alcoholic beer: 28.5 grams of carbs, 28.5 grams of sugar
- Miller High Life: 12.2 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar
- Miller Lite: 3.2 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar
- Coors Banquet: 11.7 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar
- Coors Light: 5 grams of carbs, 1 gram of sugar
- Coors Non-alcoholic: 12.2 grams of carbs, 8 grams of sugar
- Heineken: 11.4 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar
- Budweiser: 10.6 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar
- Bud Light: 4.6 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar
- Busch: 6.9 grams of carbs, no sugar reported
- Busch Light: 3.2 grams of carbs, no sugar reported
As you can see, light beers are slightly higher in sugar than regular beers. This may be due to differences in their fermentation process. Light beers are produced by adding glucoamylase to the wort — an enzyme that breaks down residual carbs and transforms them into fermentable sugars.
- This reduces both the calorie and alcohol contents of the beer ( 20 ).
- Additionally, since none of the wort’s sugar is converted into alcohol in non-alcoholic beers, these have the highest sugar content.
- Eep in mind that while beer’s sugar content may be low, regular beers are still a source of carbs, which may affect your blood sugar levels.
Furthermore, even without any reported sugars, beer’s alcohol content is still a significant source of calories. Summary Regular beers tend to be sugar-free, and light beers report barely 1 gram per can. However, non-alcoholic beers have the highest sugar content of all.
Contents
- 1 Is beer OK for diabetics?
- 2 Has beer got more sugar than wine?
- 3 What beers have no sugar?
- 4 Is sugar or beer worse for you?
Is there a lot of sugar in beer?
How does sugar in alcoholic beverages affect the body? – While the sugar content in beer is zero, other alcoholic drinks can contain a lot of sugar, especially mixed drinks and liqueurs. The former includes popular choices like daiquiris, margaritas, and piña coladas. Some mixed drinks even have soda added to them, which can affect your teeth,
- As a result, mixed drinks can contain as much as 30 grams of sugar in just one serving.
- The liqueurs also contain sugar added by the distiller to enhance the flavor and taste.
- Consuming sugar in large quantities can easily lead to weight gain, which can lead to certain medical conditions.
- Many people tend to enjoy several drinks in a sitting, consuming large amounts of sugar without even realizing it.
This high intake of sugar can lead to the development of type 2 diabetes. People with this condition have blood sugar levels that are too high for their insulin production to control. The development or worsening of this kind of diabetes is one of the most serious dangers of consuming too much sugar,
Does beer increase sugar level?
Diabetes and the Risks of Drinking Alcohol – For people with diabetes, drinking alcohol can cause low or high blood sugar, affect diabetes medicines, and cause other possible problems. LOW BLOOD SUGAR Your liver releases glucose into the blood stream as needed to help keep blood sugar at normal levels.
When you drink alcohol, your liver needs to break down the alcohol. While your liver is processing alcohol, it stops releasing glucose. As a result, your blood sugar level can drop quickly, putting you at risk for low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), If you take insulin or certain types of diabetes medicine, it can cause seriously low blood sugar.
Drinking without eating food at the same time also greatly increases this risk. The risk for low blood sugar remains for hours after you take your last drink. The more drinks you have at one time, the higher your risk. This is why you should only drink alcohol with food and drink only in moderation.
ALCOHOL AND DIABETES MEDICINES Some people who take oral diabetes medicines should talk with their provider to see if it is safe to drink alcohol. Alcohol can interfere with the effects of some diabetes medicines, putting you at risk for low blood sugar or high blood sugar (hyperglycemia), depending on how much you drink and what medicine you take.
OTHER RISKS FOR PEOPLE WITH DIABETES Drinking alcohol carries the same health risks for people with diabetes as it does in otherwise healthy people. But there are certain risks related to having diabetes that are important to know.
Alcoholic drinks such as beer and sweetened mixed drinks are high in carbohydrates, which can raise blood sugar levels.Alcohol has a lot of calories, which can lead to weight gain. This makes it harder to manage diabetes.Calories from alcohol are stored in the liver as fat. Liver fat makes liver cells more insulin resistant and can make your blood sugars higher over time.Symptoms of low blood sugar are very similar to symptoms of alcohol intoxication. If you pass out, those around you may just think you are intoxicated.Being intoxicated makes it harder to recognize the symptoms of low blood sugar and increases the risk.If you have diabetes complications, such as nerve, eye, or kidney damage, your provider may recommend that you not drink any alcohol. Doing so may worsen these complications.
Is beer OK for diabetics?
BOTTOM LINE – Moderate alcohol consumption (no more than one to two drinks per day) is perfectly safe for most people with diabetes. To avoid hypoglycemia, don’t drink on an empty stomach and check your blood sugar often while drinking and up to 24 hours after you stop drinking. If you are planning to drink beer during a sporting event or other occasion, here are a few tips to remember:
One serving of beer is 12 ounces. Choose “light” beers—they are lowest in carbs, calories, and alcohol. Pace yourself—don’t have more than one drink per hour, and limit yourself to no more than three or four drinks for the day.
Does beer have the same amount of sugar as Coke?
Is Beer or Soda Better For You? – Bayway CrossFit This was not the planned blog post for this week, but after talking with someone from the gym about their soda addiction, I decided I needed to write this because there could be more of you out there. I believe that people should not drink sodas at all, and drink alcohol in moderation. Seems silly being in the health and fitness industry but below are few comparisons that may get you to see it the same way. First, let’s start with the health benefits of these products: Sodas have ZERO health benefits.
- They contain zero vitamins or minerals.
- Beer has some of these, but not enough to provide a substantial amount of micronutrients to stop taking your vitamins.
- In 2010 the American Heart Association released guidelines stating that there are benefits to having one twelve ounce beer each night.
- I have yet to find one that says this for sodas.
In the average lagger, there are fewer calories than in a twelve-ounce soda and most light beers have about fifty fewer calories per twelve ounce can. Beer has zero grams of sugar while sodas could have forty or more in each can. If we are counting calories and sugar, I would say someone who drinks two beers a day is much less likely to get a beer belly at the same rate as someone who drinks two sodas a day.
The second comparison of beer and sodas is a quick one: If you need to clean the corrosion off your car battery you don’t pour beer on it first, you pour a coke on it.The third comparison is addictive properties:
Both beer and sugary sodas have been shown to cause a release of endorphins in the brain. The more you drink of either, the more that is released. The more you drink, the more you build up a tolerance to it and the more you will need to drink in order to get the release of endorphins again. The fourth comparison is linked to diseases: Someone who is an avid soda drinker would think that beer is the ‘more evil’ one of the two in this comparison, but it’s not. When I googled ‘diseases linked to alcohol’ and ‘diseases linked to sugar’ many of the same diseases appeared on both sides including liver health, heart health and kidney function.
- But the major player from sugar deaths did not appear on the alcohol list at all, and that is Diabetes.
- The primary fight against big soda is because, according to the American Diabetes Association, 40% of all death certificates have diabetes listed on them.
- This is a significant player in millions of deaths each year, and sugar has been directly linked to them.
One soda a day can increase your chances of diabetes by 22% according to a European study done with 350,000 people from eight different countries. The final comparison is warning labels: Beer and alcohol products are required to have a warning label on them letting everyone who drinks it know that they are drinking a product that can cause health issues and impair your senses.
Sodas are not required by federal law to have this same warning label on them, but in some cities and states they have or are trying to pass laws where this will be the case. Just based of some basic research into the health benefits of sugar one could conclude that a drink that contains over three tablespoons of sugar each should include a warning label on it in every state and every country.
Beer and alcohol companies do not advertise to children because of the legal drinking age and their warning label. Sodas do not have a warning label (yet) but have made a promise not to advertise to children. Seems a little strange? In comparison, both are bad for you.
People have this thought that because you can buy sodas at any age, they are safer for you. Both of these products will kill you at some point. Both will leave you worse after you start them. Both are dangerous; end of story. If you can avoid both for the rest of your life, you will live a longer healthier life.
HOWEVER WHAT YOU DECIDE TO DO IS UP TO YOU. YOU MAKE THESE DECISIONS FOR YOURSELF. BUT, IF I WERE TO ASK YOU, I WOULD EVEN SAY PLEAD WITH YOUPLEASE DO NOT GIVE YOUR CHILDREN SODAS. DO A QUICK GOOGLE SEARCH ON A FEW STUDIES OF WHAT SODAS ARE DOING TO KIDS. Richard AndrewsCF-L2 : Is Beer or Soda Better For You? – Bayway CrossFit
Does beer have sugar or fat?
WEBSITE OF THE YEAR APP OF THE YEAR The beer industry has launched a campaign to help us fall back in love with beer. “Beer – the beautiful truth” is fronted by a several high-profile Kiwis including Olympic rower Eric Murray. On the face of it, it’s introducing us to the fact that beer now features nutrition labels.
This is a voluntary move by some beer companies; alcoholic beverages are not required to feature nutrition labels by law. They’re doing it, they say, to help consumers make “informed choices” and to combat the “bad rap” beer has had recently from people thinking it’s high in sugar. Labels now feature the statement “This beer is 99% sugar free”.
That’s a pretty nonsensical statement, although it’s technically true, of course. Beer does not contain much sugar – and it never has. A 330ml bottle of beer has one gram or less of sugar in many cases. Nor are carbs a huge issue in beer; most beers are relatively low in carbohydrate.
- Low-carb beers are a triumph of marketing over substance.
- A “75% less carbs” beer from Speight’s, for example, does indeed contain two grams of carbs versus eight grams in one of their other standard beers.
- But you’re saving a negligible amount of calories: 27 calories or 113 kilojoules in a bottle.
- Hardly enough to shrink a beer belly.
It’s not the carbs or the sugar in beer that make us fat and causes us harm – and it has never been. It’s the alcohol. Alcohol has nearly twice the energy of sugar: one gram of alcohol provides 7 calories (29kJ) compared to one gram of sugar with 4 calories (17kJ).
- And alcohol is the thing that’s the toxin, strongly linked with increased risk for six types of cancer and responsible for over 600 deaths a year in New Zealand.
- These are facts this slick new campaign neatly glosses over.
- While alcohol’s energy content and safe drinking guidelines are mentioned on the website, the “truth” they’re emphasising is around sugar and carbs.
The cynical among us might observe that this campaign seems designed to encourage us to drink more beer, not less. It’s giving us licence to do so by jumping on to the popular low sugar bandwagon and attempting to turn beer into a healthy choice. I’m not anti-beer.
- I enjoy an occasional brew.
- I think it is a good thing to put nutrition labels on beer, and it’s probably something the wine industry should look at doing, too (wine, incidentally, also contains less than a teaspoon of sugar per glass).
- If that information helps us think twice about having a second or third beer, that’s good.
But don’t be fooled by the marketing claims. And don’t forget to look at the rest of the label too. The most important information about beer – the alcohol content – has always been on the label. And when it comes to health, we are far better off ignoring claims of low sugar or low carb, and going for low- or no-alcohol options.
Which alcohol has most sugar?
A 4-ounce pina colada is one of the alcoholic beverages with the most sugar. It contains 28 grams of added sugar, though it all comes from ingredients other than the alcohol. A 4-ounce daiquiri has 6.7 grams of sugar, again none of it from the actual alcohol. Gin, rum, whiskey and vodka don’t contain any added sugar.
Is it bad to have 2 beers a day?
Mayo Clinic Q and A: Is daily drinking problem drinking? DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Is it possible to become an alcoholic just by having one or two drinks nightly? I have a glass or two of wine with dinner but never drink to the point of feeling drunk. Should I be concerned? ANSWER: Occasional beer or wine with dinner, or a drink in the evening, is not a health problem for most people.
When drinking becomes a daily activity, though, it may represent progression of your consumption and place you at increased health risks. From your description of your drinking habits, it may be time to take a closer look at how much you drink. Drinking alcohol in moderation generally is not a cause for concern.
According to the, drinking is considered to be in the moderate or low-risk range for women at no more than three drinks in any one day and no more than seven drinks per week. For men, it is no more than four drinks a day and no more than 14 drinks per week. That said, it’s easy to drink more than a standard drink in one glass. For example, many wine glasses hold far more than 5 ounces. You could easily drink 8 ounces of wine in a glass. If you have two of those glasses during a meal, you are consuming about three standard drinks.
Although not drinking to the point of becoming drunk is a common way people gauge how much they should drink, it can be inaccurate. Researchers who study find that people with high tolerance to alcohol, who do not feel the effects of alcohol after they drink several alcoholic beverages, are actually at a higher risk for alcohol-related problems.
It’s also important to note that, even though you may not feel the effects of alcohol, you still have the same amount of alcohol in your body as someone who starts to feel intoxicated after one or two drinks. Your lack of response to the alcohol may be related to an increase in your body’s alcohol tolerance over time.
Some people are born with high tolerance; many people develop a tolerance with regular drinking. Drinking more than the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recommended limits puts you in the category of “at-risk” drinking. That means you have a higher risk for negative consequences related to your alcohol use, including health and social problems.
You are also at higher risk of becoming addicted to alcohol. Alcohol can damage your body’s organs and lead to various health concerns. For women, this damage happens with lower doses of alcohol, because their bodies have lower water content than men. That’s why the moderate drinking guidelines for women and men are so different.
- The specific organ damage that happens with too much alcohol use varies considerably from one person to another.
- The most common health effects include heart, liver and nerve damage, as well as memory problems and sexual dysfunction.
- Unless you notice specific negative consequences related to your drinking, it probably is not necessary for you to quit drinking alcohol entirely.
However, I would strongly encourage you to reduce the amount you drink, so it fits within the guidelines of moderate drinking. Doing so can protect your health in the long run. —, Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota : Mayo Clinic Q and A: Is daily drinking problem drinking?
Has beer got more sugar than wine?
– Source: CNN ” data-fave-thumbnails=”, “small”: }” data-vr-video=”” data-show-html=”” data-check-event-based-preview=”” data-network-id=”” data-details=””> How alcohol affects your health 01:16 – Source: CNN CNN — I often tell people to steer clear of alcoholic beverages when trying to lose weight. After all, they don’t exactly provide nutritious calories, and consuming them can make it increasingly more challenging to lose weight, But that doesn’t stop people from asking me, “what is the best drink to have on a diet?” Clearly, some alcoholic beverages are more waistline-friendly than others. So the short answer is: If you’re looking to shed pounds, some of your lowest-calorie bets are a shot of spirits (for example, a 1.5-ounce shot of vodka, gin, rum, whiskey or tequila contains an average of 97 calories), a glass of champagne (about 84 calories per 4 ounces); a glass of dry wine (approximately 120 to 125 calories per 5 ounces) or a traditional martini, with an average of 124 calories for a 2.5-ounce serving. A light beer (approximately 100 calories) or a glass of reduced-calorie wine (about 90 to 100 calories) are other lower-calorie options. But if you want to know why some alcoholic beverages contain more calories than others, read on. Pure alcohol contains 7 calories per gram – that’s less than a gram of fat, which has 9 calories, but more than protein and carbs, which have 4 calories per gram each – but other variables of your drink influence the calorie count. The amount of alcohol, the total volume of a beverage, the amount of carbohydrates and sugars and mixers all play a role. Generally speaking, the biggest difference in calories in beverages comes from the alcohol content, but the presence of carbohydrates in alcoholic beverages also contributes largely to its calories, according to Dwayne Bershaw, who teaches winemaking classes in the Department of Food Science at Cornell University. Any carbohydrates in wine consist of small amounts of sugar, which may either be left over from the original grape sugar after most of it ferments into alcohol or added from grape juice or some other source, in order to balance the acidity of the wine. Unless we’re talking about a dessert wine, this amount of sugar is generally small and does not contribute a significant amount of calories to wine. Beer is made from grain, which stores carbohydrates in the form of starch – specifically large, branched sugar molecules, which are chopped into pieces by naturally occurring enzymes in malted barley during the brewing process. The smallest sugar pieces are converted to alcohol by yeast, but some larger pieces remain that cannot be broken down by yeast, according to Bershaw. These remaining carbohydrates contribute to the overall calorie count for most beers. Generally, beer has more calories than wine, but the calorie difference in the two primarily comes from the leftover carbohydrates in beer, as the sugar content for most wines is fairly low. Low-calorie beers have an additional enzyme added during the brewing or fermentation process, and it breaks down all of the starch molecules into simple sugars so there are no remaining carbohydrates. These beers also have a relatively low alcohol content to keep the total calorie count quite low, according to Bershaw. And generally, spirits – including vodka, tequila, rum and gin – do not contain any carbohydrates or sugars. Some producers may add small amounts of sugar to combat any perceived bitterness, according to Bershaw, but like wine, this small amount would not bump the calorie count much. Though they have higher alcohol by volume (up to 40% or more), the volume of a standard shot is small (1.5 ounces), making them a relatively lower-calorie option – that is, as long as you can stick to one shot or mix it with a zero-calorie beverage, like a diet cola, soda water or seltzer. Other ingredients – including mixers, tonic water, juice, soda, syrups, cream and coconut – all pack sugar and fat calories on top of alcohol and should be consumed with caution, explained Ginger Hultin, a registered dietitian, spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and author of the blog ChampagneNutrition. “Margaritas and pina coladas can have close to 500 calories per drink, depending on the size and how it’s made, and could be a real challenge for anyone with a weight loss goal,” Hultin added. Lisa Drayer is a nutritionist, an author and a CNN health and nutrition contributor.
What alcohol is lowest in sugar?
Tequila – Research on mice shows that consuming the agave tequila plant can increase calcium absorption and improve bone health. However, for humans, it’s doubtful that drinking tequila can actually help treat calcium deficiency or bone conditions like osteoporosis.
What beers have no sugar?
Heineken: 11.4 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar. Budweiser: 10.6 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar. Bud Light : 4.6 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar. Busch: 6.9 grams of carbs, no sugar reported.
Does Heineken have sugar?
Heineken: 11.4 grams of carbs, 0 grams of sugar.
How many spoons of sugar are in beer?
ONE of the quickest ways to lose weight is to cut down on alcohol because booze is often little more than liquid sugar. You might be surprised to learn exactly how much of the sweet stuff is in your favourite tipple. That old saying “What’s your poison?” has never been more true, because over-consumption of sugar is one of the major health concerns of modern-day life.
One pint of stout has up to five teaspoons of sugar, more than half the recommended daily amount for an adult and more than you’ll consume in a half a Mars bar. Scientists have recently recommended to the World Health Organisation that men shouldn’t consume more than eight teaspoons (32g) of sugar a day or women six teaspoons (24g) a day.
Be warned: A Bacardi Breezer contains 5.5 teaspoons of sugar, a Vodka and Coke has 6.5 and a Smirnoff Ice has 7.5. I’m lucky that my favourite drinks are dry white wine or sparkly Prosecco, which have only a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar per glass. At least they’re not liquid sugar.
Men’s drinks are even worse for their waistlines and their health: Strong real ales can have up to nine teaspoons of sugar because sugar or honey is often added to the beverage to help produced the desired flavour. So just one pint takes you over the recommended daily sugar intake. Years ago they use to advertise that “Guinness is good for you” but a pint contains five teaspoons of sugar (real liquid sugar!) Even lager has about three teaspoons.
Like a G&T in the evening? It’s lovely in summer with ice and lemon, isn’t it, but be careful – that tonic could have five teaspoons of sugar in it. Compare that to a large glass of red wine, which only has a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar. A bottle of Magners pear cider was found to have eight and a half teaspoons while a pint of Strongbow dry cider had three and a half teaspoons of sugar in it.
- Vodka, gin and whisky have minimal traces of sugar in them unless you top the drink up with a fizzy mixer such as coke or lemonade.
- Alcopops also had high sugar content with around five teaspoons per bottle.
- Liqueurs such as sambuca and Amaretto had around four teaspoons of sugar in a single shot.
- Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra says: ‘The level of sugar in some of these drinks is quite staggering.
There’s nothing wrong with the occasional drink but unfortunately we are consuming much more than is good for us. “Recent scientific evidence reveals that the most significant dietary villain is sugar. But it’s not just hidden sugar that the food industry has profited from by adding to foods we don’t even associate with being junk foods.
Is it better to drink wine or beer?
Beer Pros –
Germany’s Commission E — the German equivalent of our FDA — has approved hops to treat restlessness, anxiety, and sleep disturbances. The nutritional value of beer exceeds that of wine, The values of protein, fiber, B vitamins, folate, and niacin found in beer make it more like food. Studies in mice showed that hops may inhibit obesity. You can better socialize with hipsters. One study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that especially hoppy beer can increase bone mineral density, i.e. make your bones stronger.
How does beer not have sugar?
Does beer have sugar? Since beer is primarily composed of grain, hops, yeast, and water, sugar is not one of its initial ingredients. However, in the process of malting grain (usually barley), the starches are converted into sugars. As a result, there is a small sugar content prior to the fermentation process.
Why is beer fattening?
Why the calories in alcohol can lead to a ‘beer belly’ – Drinking alcohol will add to the overall calories we consume each day. Calories from alcohol are ’empty calories’, meaning they have little nutritional benefit. So consuming extra calories through drinking can lead to weight gain.1,2 Typically, men tend to show weight gain around their middle 3,4, which is how the term ‘beer belly’ came about.
How many spoons of sugar are in a pint of beer?
Beer and cider – The calorie content of beer ranges depending on the type; Drinkaware estimates the average pint of beer (ABV 4%) contains 182 calories. A pint of higher-ABV beer such as ale or stout, however, can set you back 250 calories or more – the same as a Mars bar.
Cider, due to the higher sugar content, is slightly higher in calories than beer, with an average of 215 calories in a 4.5% ABV pint. Healthline suggests that one pint of regular beer contains an average 12g of carbs but 0g of sugar. Non-alcoholic beer, however, usually contains 28.5g of carbs as well as 28.5g of sugar.
But the sugar content can also vary per label as Foster’s contains 2.7g of sugar per 100ml, meaning one pint contains just over 13.5g – nearly 27 per cent of your recommended daily sugar intake.
Which alcohol is lowest in sugar?
Tequila – Research on mice shows that consuming the agave tequila plant can increase calcium absorption and improve bone health. However, for humans, it’s doubtful that drinking tequila can actually help treat calcium deficiency or bone conditions like osteoporosis.
Is there more sugar in beer than wine?
Effect of Alcohol in the Body – The body’s metabolism of sugar and carbohydrates when alcohol is present varies from the norm. Contrary to most food and beverages, alcohol has a lowering effect on blood sugars. Alcohol’s metabolism in the body blocks the liver’s release of blood sugar-regulating hormones.
- This can cause low blood sugars, or hypoglycemia, especially in individuals concerned with alcohol and diabetes, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
- The wine-making process of fermentation turns the sugar in grapes into ethanol and carbon dioxide.
- Encyclopedia Brittanica says most of the grape sugar is used up during this process, leaving wine with very little sugar content.
According to the USDA National Nutrient Database for alcoholic beverages, red table wines have less than 1 gram of sugar per serving. White table wines have slightly more with 1.5 grams of sugar per serving. Red and white wines have a carbohydrate content of about 4 grams per serving.
Because there are numerous varieties of wine, the sugar content can vary widely. Dessert wines, as an example, can have as many as 8 grams of sugar per serving. Sugar is added to these wines to create a sweet flavor. The sugar content in beer is lower than in wine or liquor, but beer has a higher carbohydrate content per serving.
Regular beer has 12 grams of carbohydrate per serving, but zero grams of sugar. Light beer has less carbohydrates, with approximately 6 grams of carbohydrate per serving and less than half a gram of sugar, so may be a better choice for a healthier beer.
Is sugar or beer worse for you?
The symptoms may differ, but the effects don’t – Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash. Alcohol is the outcome of fermented sugar. Both alcohol and added sugars are metabolized similarly through the liver. Neither portray any nutritional value and our bodies tend to burn through the energy fasters leading to the constant craving and the over consumption which drives up our daily calorie intake.
While you can technically still lose weight while consuming added sugars, the WHO issued three strong recommendations regarding sugar intake, after a study that looked into the rise of noncommunicable diseases and its direct association with 50 million deaths worldwide in 2012, was directly associated with a poor diet and physical inactivity.
The Who’s recommendations include a reduced intake of free sugars throughout the life course, reducing the intake to less than 10% the total energy intake, and the reduction to below 5% daily intake, in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle and avoid the risk of diseases directly associated with the consumption of free sugars such as obesity, diabetes, and dental caries.10% of our daily caloric intake translates to less than 150 calories from added sugar per day in men and less than 100 calories of added sugar for women, which is at a maximum 25g, almost twice the amount found in a 12 oz serving of Coca-Cola.
- While alcohol isn’t used for energy output and contrary to its typical comparison to carbohydrate calorie value, as opposed to holding a 4 calorie per gram value, like carbohydrates, it actually holds a 7 calorie per gram caloric amount.
- Falling right behind the value of gram per of fat, which is the highest at 9 calories per gram.
All carbohydrates are typically placed under the same umbrella, but they shouldn’t be. Carbohydrates are made up of either glucose, fructose, fiber or a combination of 50% glucose and 50% fructose which is sucrose. The metabolism of glucose and fructose is also different, as glucose is the preferred source of energy and will be used by the body primarily, while fructose in the other hand, is metabolized through the liver and tends to be stored as fat if not used instantly.
- The most relevant distinction between glucose and fructose, is that every cell in our system is capable of utilizing glucose as opposed to fructose, which is not needed for a single biochemical reaction in our system. According to a study published by Dr. Robert Lustig, “the actions of fructose on the body more closely resemble those of ethanol (grain alcohol), another nonessential energy source.”
- One of the reason’s people fail to stop consuming added sugars is the common misconception that that they are simply “empty calories,” when in reality, several studies have shown at least three negative effects for its consumption. The overconsumption of “fructose drives DNL, resulting in dyslipidemia, hepatic steatosis, and insulin resistance,” which is comparable to the reactions seen in alcohol consumption over an extended period of time.
- What makes natural fructose in fruits acceptable is the combination of nutrients brought by the fruit along with fiber which allow the body to slowly process all components. The amount of fructose found in fruits along with the fiber, allow for the liver to process the intake of fructose more slowly while our system is also breaking down nutrients derived from the fruit. As opposed to added sugars, or added fructose, a fruit will keep you satisfied for longer, preventing you from overeating or reaching for another dosage, which makes the consumption of fructose balanced and acceptable. You would have to eat three medium sized apples to reach the same amount of fructose found in a 20 oz Coca-Cola.
- In a study performed on mice on a high-fat diet, the consumption of fructose over glucose, lead to obesity, insulin resistance and a higher fat composition around the liver.
- Consuming more calories from ethanol or fructose cause the liver to automatically store the energy as fat, which leads to higher risk of obesity and diabetes.
- Similar to alcohol, sugar induces all of the diseases associated with metabolic syndrome, “hypertension, high triglycerides and insulin resistance through synthesis of fat in the liver; diabetes from increased liver glucose production combined with insulin resistance; and the aging process, caused by damage to lipids, proteins and DNA through non-enzymatic binding of fructose to these molecules. It can also be argued that fructose exerts toxic effects on the liver that are similar to those of alcohol.”
The increased consumption of added sugars/fructose in comparison to alcohol is much higher. While alcohol’s effects are usually more rapidly experienced, the long term consumption of increased added sugars, are a straight pathway towards noncommunicable diseases.
The main similarity between fructose and alcohol is the metabolization process, which takes place in the liver and leads to a higher risk of the above mentioned diseases. Although the effects of sugar consumption are not immediately experienced, especially in comparison to the effects of being under the alcoholic influence, over an increased period of time, the effects are visually noticeable through weight gain, followed by a decreased metabolic process and/or the emergence of diabetes, obesity, increased blood pressure, or other related diseases.
OBESITY AND MALNOURISHMENT. Photo by Anna Sullivan on Unsplash More people than ever are over weight yet malnourished, this strange paradox is powered by sugar and sold in almost all processed foods. While sugar isn’t as negatively portrayed or regulated by government agencies like alcohol, its effects on the regular public are alarming, concerning and remained unaddressed.
The reason most “diets” work is do to the suppression of carbohydrate consumption, macro-counting, plant-based (eliminates all processed foods), keto (significantly reduces carb consumption), whole30 (no alcohol, sugar, or dairy), Paleo, Adkins and more, which eliminate or reduce added sugars by bringing awareness to products that have it while increasing awareness towards food labels, ingredients, and hidden names for fructose or sugar.
EATING DISORDERS AND SUGAR There are a lot misconceptions regarding the treatment of eating disorders. The most recent common approach is to follow a “no-diet” diet or intuitive eating which follows strict principles and should be done with the guidance of a certified professional.
However, the constant bash on “diet-culture” by popular personalities and social-media influencers from different sources may have a negative impact on the truth regarding health, and lifestyle approaches. Popular content suggests to give-in if you have a sugar craving and/or to eat when you are hungry, others allude to increasing calories and completely bash on diets and calorie suppression.
These approaches and information tend to mix in and establish no true guidance when it comes to proper nourishment. Scrolling through a picture that suggests the consumption of a sugary item will not actually impose any benefits towards your physiology, but it will purposely decrease the feelings of feeling guilty that tend to lead to over eating. Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash. To lose weight, all you need is a caloric deficit. Losing weight is simple, but the common conception regarding “suppression” and its approach is seen as unhealthy.However, if done properly, calorie counting, macro counting or following a specific diet for an extended period of time can lead you to understand your physiology, what works, what doesn’t work and ultimately weight loss. Photo by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on Unsplash. “ELIMINATING OR BANNING FOODS COMPLETELY LEADS TO A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD” While this is true, completely eliminating sugar from our diet can actually have increasing health benefits. Given that added sugars have recently been incorporate to homo sapiens’s diets, and have not been part of our regular food group until more recently, why should we actually be lead to believe that we actually need it? As mentioned previously, “there is not a single biochemical reaction that requires dietary fructose.” Sugar is the sole attributor to a worldwide pandemic that is slowly killing our people, and its increasingly filtering through the youth.
There is no need for added sugars, and the consumption should be stopped ASAP. Alcohol’s immediate visible and physical effects bring awareness to its impact on our physiology more rapidly and wouldn’t typically be compared to the effects of fructose. But this is precisely what makes sugar worse than alcohol.
Given that sugar is more common than you think, it leads to the unknown overconsumption, while its side effects are noticed when it is a bit too late and you’ve already been hooked by the sugary cycle that leads to a never ending feeling of cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
- agave syrup
- brown sugar
- cane juice and cane syrup
- confectioners’ sugar
- corn sweetener and corn syrup
- dextrose
- fructose
- fruit juice concentrates
- granulated white sugar
- high-fructose corn syrup
- honey
- invert sugar
- malt syrup
- molasses
- raw sugar
- sucrose
- syrup
Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash. Sugar and alcohol are derived from the same source, while one is more rapidly experience, the other one hides within almost every processed food product in order to preserve its packaged state, or create dependency.
While sugar doesn’t pose immediate effects and isn’t portrayed as a drug or even regulated by nutrition government agencies, the statistics and research have clearly shown the effects of its over consumption over the past decades within the general public. The increased intake of added sugars, bring a higher caloric intake of almost 500 calories per day.
Such pose no nutritional value and lead to being overweight, yet malnourished. As stated by the WHO “Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) were the leading causes of death and were responsible for 38 million (68%) of the world’s 56 million deaths in 2012.” ARTICLES: https://academic.oup.com/advances/article/4/2/226/4591631 https://sugarscience.ucsf.edu/the-toxic-truth/#.XvZMYC2ZM34 https://www.nature.com/articles/482027a