I’ve once heard that the amount of grain that goes into one Trappist beer is the same amount required to produce a loaf of bread. For those of you that don’t know, Trappist beers are the beers brewed by Belgian monks (and recently by some Italian, Austrian, Dutch and American dilettantes). So if you drink one of those it’s the same as eating a loaf of bread. I’ve never been sure if this was true but when drinking one of those one could be led to believe that it is.

And it’s not the only food and alcohol parallel floating around. I found a calculator that calculated the amount of calories you’ve consumed according to the drinks you had. I put the sliders on three glasses of champagne, two large glasses of wine and one spirit. This resulted in an intake of 745.5 calories or 9 chocolate digestive biscuits. To burn this you need 2 hours and 35 minutes of brisk walking. So it goes.

You shouldn’t look too much to the numbers though. The way bodies deal with calories varies substantially from person to person. Nonetheless they’re a good guideline to know which drinks are slimmer and which are fatter.

Wine is good. A standard glass of red wine is around 120 calories, white wine and champagne average around 100 calories per glass. The only thing that can beat this is a vodka soda which comes in at 64 calories per serving. A standard beer is around 155 calories but beware of stronger beers. Craft and artisanal beers usually pack a bit more punch than your everyday lager. A standard pour of hard liquor is usually around 90 calories but beware of mixers. As we all know except for soda, most soft drink mixers contain a lot of sugar and thus a lot of calories. A rum and coke, for example, is around 250 calories. Watch out for gin and tonics too, tonic water doesn’t taste overly sweet but usually contains the same amount of sugar as most soft drinks.

If you want to watch your weight, wine and beer (lagers, ales and pilsners) seem good options but don’t let me stop you from having that Piña Colada. After all, mental health needs to be accounted for too.

Cheers!

[Article by Alexander Eeckhout]