Beverages be they beers, wines or spirits do have a high cal-horrific content. The calories in a drink are shared between the alcohol and unfermented sugars from the fermentation process.

Different drinks will have different ratios of both alcohol and sugar i.e. a beer will have the majority of its calories as unfermented sugar, while a spirits drink (Whisky or Vodka) will have its calories primarily in the form or alcohol, and a wine will have an equal mix of high sugar and alcohol content.

In metabolic terms our body deals with these two sources of energy very differently. A sugar can be metabolised by every cell in our bodies so is always welcome as a source of energy. However, alcohol is best described as a toxin, as the average body cell can’t use it as an energy source, it is in fact an organic cell solvent. The bodies detox control centre, the liver is the only area with specialist cells which can metabolise it and break it down.

Interestingly, several years ago, while working at a local brewery, I attended a presentation on a study which investigated this particular area i.e. weight gain related to drinking spirits or beer (unpublished work).

This study aimed to supply the same amount of calories to subjects with one group receiving calories from a drink high in sugars and subjects in the other group receiving calories from drinks with high alcohol and low sugar content. Research, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it!

Only one group of subjects put on weight, and that was the beer drinking group.

This was hardly surprising as the researcher went on to point out that not only are sugars readily available as a source of energy but that apparently there can be up to 1kg of unfermented sugar in 8 to 9 pints of beer. No wonder the classical beer physique people taken on with large amounts of beer drinking, nor is its association with the development of diabetes.