Let’s get rid of it right away: Too much alcohol in any form is bad for your health. Although alcohol itself has approximately negative health benefits, over time it can drink excess due to liver damage, and further insidious side effects include cancer risk, osteoporosis, infertility, weight gain, depression, prolonged sloppy speech, pancreatitis and heart disease. . Whether you drink beer with less alcohol or spirits, or the best French wines, it can wreak havoc on your body over time.
Of course, this does not mean that all alcoholic beverages are equal. A light, low-calorie beer will probably be better for you than a better-tasting counterpart that contains 450 calories. And if you are a lover of the hard stuff, then know that drinking your favorite rum neatly in a small glass, your body will always be as bad as drinking the same amount of rum, mixed in a classic daiquiri that is full high dose simple syrup. (A single gram of syrup contains more than five teaspoons of added sugar. As we have reported in the past, too much sugar will be added to more belly fat, increase your blood pressure, affect the functioning of your brain, cause your skin to sag, and doubles the risk of dying from heart disease.)
This all begs the question: is there a worst kind of alcoholic beverage that you should definitely avoid? And if so, what is it? According to at least one registered dietitian, there is a clear answer. “Mixed drinks are much more problematic,” said Leslie Bonci, MPH, RDN, CSSD, LDN, a sports dietitian who works with the NFL’s reigning Super Bowl champion, the Kansas City Chiefs. “There’s more alcohol in them, the mixers will increase the calories, and with the new dietary guidelines for Americans just released, we know that the new guidelines are one drink per day for women and two for men. Various mixed drinks contain the equivalent to five shots of alcohol, equivalent to five drinks. ‘
Bonci singles out three specific drinks that you should avoid, which she says are actively competing for the distinction between the “worst alcoholic beverage”, which depends on how it is prepared and in what size: Piña Coladas, Margaritas and Long Island Iced Teas.
“A Piña Colada contains more than 650 calories, which is more than a Big Mac’s 576,” reports Gizmodo. According to most recipes, a Piña Colada contains a combination of rum, coconut milk, coconut cream, pineapple juice and lemon juice. In other words, they are full of sugar. Overall, the typical garden variety Piña Colada, as we reported in the past, contains about 40 grams of sugar in one serving of eight ounces, so it’s at the top of our list of the worst cocktails on the planet. It makes worse that coconut cream contains a healthy dose of saturated fat.
A margarita serving of eight ounces contains 274 calories and 36.1 grams of sugar. But as you probably know, margaritas are not the same everywhere, and it’s not uncommon for people to exceed eight ounces when drinking them. The British Medical Journal once ranked the worst drinks in America and singled out the ‘traditional lobster’ of Red Lobster as a particularly bad actor. The researchers noted that the giant, 24-ounce cocktail took in 890 calories and 183 grams of carbohydrates – the equivalent of eating seven Almond Joy candy bars. “Of all the disgusting drinks we analyzed, the Lobsterita surprised us the most,” the researchers wrote, noting that you ‘save 6.4 calories if you’ downgrade to a regular margarita on the rocks’.
A Long Island ice tea, meanwhile, contains vodka, gin, rum, tequila, triple, sweet and sour mixture, lemon juice, simple syrup and cola. “A single LIIT can only contain 780 calories,” writes Gizmodo. “Plus, all that alcohol hits your system at once like a freight train. Plus, the only thing that dilutes this drink is just adding more sugar.”
If you’re flipping a new leaf in the new year, consider researching your favorite mixed drinks extra nicely, and definitely put any variation of these three cocktails in the rearview mirror. And for more bad drinks you should avoid, see below, because we’ve put together some of the worst here. And for more advice on alcohol consumption, make sure you are the most dangerous age to drink alcohol, according to experts.
Like many frozen margaritas and Piña Coladas, mudslides are full of added sugar. “The Ultimate Mudslide from TGI Fridays contains vodka, Baileys, Kahlua, cream and ice cream and contains as many as 740 calories, 26 grams of fat and 86 grams of sugar,” Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN, said earlier. Eat it, not it. ‘It’s almost four days of sugar in one drink if you follow [the] American Heart Association guidelines. “
The average daiquiri contains about 40 grams of sugar, the same amount as in four Krispy Kreme-glazed donuts.
Whiskey sours are another popular cocktail that tends to become added sugar.
Did you make cocktails at home during the quarantine? Cheers for that! But use ginger beer as a blender. It’s full of sugar – you’ll be better off using regular ginger beer.
Spiked eggnog is a classic holiday, but it is far from a health food. Milk, cream and eggs provide a rich drink, but they also provide a cocktail with enough calories to compete with a meal. No wonder eggs are still one of our 40 drinks you should never drink after 40.