Calories in alcohol

Alcoholic beverages are made from fermented natural sugars and starch, which converts sugars into alcohol. The intake of calories in alcohol, are commonly called by nutritionists ’empty calories’ – because they have no nutritional value. 

On the other hand, four types of agents provide our body calories that can be used to generate energy: fats, carbohydrates, proteins and alcohol. Proteins and carbohydrates have four calories per gram, one gram of fat contains 9 calories per and one gram of alcohol – 7 calories. (1 gram – 1/4 teaspoon)

The calculations show that if you are on a low carbohydrate diet, you could still allow yourself to drink in moderate quantities of certain alcoholic beverages. Beverages such as brandy and rum do not contain carbohydrates. Half a glass of red wine contains 2 grams of carbohydrates, and the same amount of white wine – 0,9 grams. The carbohydrates in beer vary depending on the brand, but a small beer (330 ml) contains approximately 12 grams of carbohydrates.

You should not drink more than two drinks per day, regardless of your diet. Low carbohydrate diets and some other, even prohibit the consumption of any alcohol.

The human body can not store alcohol. So it almost immediately converts it into energy. When you think about it at first sounds good, but in practice leads to disruption of other processes such as fat burning and absorption of nutrients.