Alcohol has so much to answer for.
Yes it can make you dance better, enhance your charm and even make members of the opposite sex appear more attractive.
But there are not many things worse for you diet and health than smashing a skin full of booze all weekend…and those hangovers just get worse and worse.
Your body stops burning fat for energy the moment you start imbibing a pint or two as your liver tries to deal with the alcohol in your system.
Drink Aware tells us that alcohol consists pretty much of ’empty calories’ that have no nutritional value.
But not all alcohol is created equal – and some are really worse than others where calories are concerned.
Here is our handy guide on some of your favourite tipples…
Guinness
Everyone loves a pint of Guinness. Ireland’s most famous export is a favourite for sessioning – because it’s not gassy so you don’t get the nasty one-pint bloat you get with lager.
It’s so good the NHS used to dish it out to blood donors, post-op patients and even new mothers to boost their iron as a pint of the famous Dublin stout contains 0.3mg.
A Wisconsin study also found that a pint a day could be as effective as asprin at reducing blood clots which can cause heart attacks.
But before you go nailing 10 jars of the black stuff (which is actually more ruby coloured in reality), know this – one pint (568ml) contains 210 calories. There’s 18g of carbs in each one too.
Just so you can comprehend what that means in food terms, it’s equal to four and a half Jaffa Cake biscuits.
Jaegerbomb
It’s everyone’s favourite way of getting royally f**ked up. The heady mix of alcohol and sugar gets you properly steaming.
We probably don’t have to tell you they’re not the best things for your physique – not to mention the three-day hangovers.
But back in the day Jager was marketed as a remedy for coughs and digestive problems, according to Life With Gremlins.
Along with a bunch of mystery ingredients, it does contain things like cinnamon bark, ginger root which has been shown to help flatulence and mild indigestion.
But before you start faking a stomach ache or cough and pulling out the Jager at work, a standard Jagerbomb (30ml Jager, 100ml energy drink) contains 209 calories. But that also includes a whopping 44g of carbs, according to MyFitnessPal.
Drink three of these on a night out and that’s the same as a Burger King Whopper.
Cider
When the sun’s out there’s no better drink to quench your thirst than a frosty pint of cider.
British summer wouldn’t be the same without bucket loads of the stuff.
Like apples, natural apple cider actually can have some health benefits and the phytochemicals in the fruit are strong anti-oxidants which can inhibit cancer cell proliferation and lower cholesterol.
Processed ciders might not be quite as good for you, but they taste so damn good.
The calorie content of cider however can vary depending on their alcohol %ABV.
A pint of Strongbow only has 187 calories whereas Gaymers Old English Cider contains 244 calories.
If you had two of those that would be the same as a McDonald’s Big Mac.
Lager
Homer Lovers it. Peter Griffin loves it. And we bloody love it too. Our stomachs aren’t quite so smitten with it, as the beer bellies show.
But there’s nothing quite like a few cold ones to round off a hard week at work (or to soften the blow of the start of a new one).
Moderate beer consumption can actually improve your cardiovascular health, according to Italian research. It can even help you rehydrate better than water after exercise.
The odd ale won’t kill you, but 10 pints of beer followed by the obligatory Friday night pizza will leave your gains in tatters.
There’s 225 calories in a pint of Fosters (with 17.6g of carbs) whereas Carling only has 189 calories per pint (8g of carbs).
You can get ‘light’ or ‘low carb’ versions of loads of beers these days which are better on your belly.
Michelob Ultra Amber has just 95 calories and 2.6g of carbs in every 330ml bottle. There’s a full list of 250 here…
Red wine
A glass of wine a day keeps the doctor at bay, apparently. Not that we need an excuse, mind.
The health benefits of the odd glass of red are very well documented. Drinking it can boost your good cholesterol and lower your risk of heart attack.
It also contains a powerful anti-oxidant called resveratrol which can actually help turn flab into calorie-burning ‘brown fat’.
That’s not to say you should go out and drink a bottle a night. Far from it. The average 250ml glass of wine contains up to 214 calories.
So if you sink a 750ml bottle of wine it’s the same amount of calories as eating one and a half Mars bars.
There’s a growing number of people turning to ‘natural wines’ which are lower in sugar and alcohol (as low as 9%ABV) which come with the added benefit of hardly any hangover.
