By Star
Webbed Weight Loss Clinic - Feature
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
Summertime - when you're hot and thirsty - drinking time, whether your taste runs to the alcoholic or non-alcoholic libations. As drinks are the worst form of sugar, salt, alcohol, or empty calories - and who actually can enhance your fun without ruining your diet and health?
And no, this does not limit you to the water.
First a word about alcohol
Alcoholic beverages contain different percentages of alcohol. According to the National Institutes of Health, includes a standard drink beer around 5% alcohol, wine contains 12%, and spirits is 40%. Distilled alcohol is classified as "proof". For example, 100-proof alcohol contains 50% alcohol-80 proof contains 40% alcohol, etc.
A standard drink is considered to be:
• 5 ounces of wine
• 12 ounces of wine cooler
• 12 ounces of beer
• 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits
Many studies have been conducted, there appears to suggest that alcohol in moderation - particularly wine - may have health benefits, although perhaps not enough people to start drinking if they do not care to do so.
Doctors recommend men limit alcohol consumption to two drinks, women should drink more than one drink per day.
You also need to be drinking age in your state to consume alcohol - and to assume responsibilities, not only for your health, but also others' safety in terms of driving and other behaviors that can occur under the influence of alcohol.
You will enjoy your summer, do not forget it.
"Cocktails were invented by the British navy in the 1800s to keep sailors from drinking their rum rations at once, and thus become too drunk to work," Anthony Dias Blue tells Webbed.
Blue is the wine and spirits editor of Bon Appetite magazine and also author of the Complete Book of Mixed Drinks: More Than 1,000 Alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails. He says that summer drinks should be "long" (meaning tall) should have the fruit, and should refresh rather than a book down in the heat. No cream drink, he says.
The worst thing he can think of? "Eggnog," he says instantly. Followed by an Irish coffee.
Other summer favorites go down easy, but contains a lot of sugar, sometimes too much sodium, and calories galore. "I saw a sign for [a famous rum]," says Audrey T. Cross, PhD, nutrition professor at
"Well, it could have been zero carbohydrates, but it was not zero calories," Cross says. "Do not forget, alcohol is digested, and it is not in your bloodstream."
As a rule of thumb is distilled alcohol around 100 calories one ounce.
"Make it brighter margarita," Blue adviser. "Less tequila, more ice."
Cross and Blue both say gin and tonic is the "perfect" summer alcohol drink. "This is the healthiest beverage on earth," jokes Blue. "The gin is a diuretic, the tonic keep away malaria. I never get malaria!"
Cross uses diet tonic and a whole lime to lots of vitamin C. "On the other," she whispers, "I omit the gin. You can not taste the difference."
Cross also professes a fondness for mint juleps. Use only fresh mint, she says, and not crush the sugar in the glass, use a mortar and pestle. "You can get mint oils out with less sugar that way," she says, crediting her mother for this advice.
Blue also said Tom Collins (lemon juice, gin, sugar, club soda and a cherry), is a fine summer drink.
Sprinter is also relatively healthy. You cut the wine with club soda. "You can use white Zinfandel, white wine, red wine - all you have," says Blue. To make sangria, dump in the sliced fruit.
Commercial wine coolers, however, tend to contain lots of calories and chemicals.
What with summer favorites - beer? Beer contains a number of nutrients, Cross acknowledges, and has been consumed for millennia. "Like any liquid calories, it goes down so easily," she said sugar. Remember, a beer containing a shot of ethanol, like a glass of wine or a gin and tonic.
The No. 1 summer drink? Water! It can be bottled, filtered or water cooler black. "If you get sick of it," Cross says, "try icing a pitcher of it with cut lemons and limes wrapped in it. Freeze fruit into cubes and use them."
Tea comes in second. Cross recommends making syrup, which is half sugar and half water - boiled until it is clear - and let it cool. "Use this in it instead of sugar that falls to the bottom," she says. "You will use less sugar." Green tea is also a refreshing iced variety, although recent studies put doubt on his alleged powers as an antioxidant. You can also make iced tea with garden herbs like rosemary or lemon verbena.
If you do not want to heat the house, make sun tea. Put a clean glass jug filled with water and tea bags in the sun for half days. Be sure that everything is clean because it never gets hot enough to kill organisms. But it is never so hot it melts the ice.
Pomegranate juice is packed with antioxidants. It goes well with fruit, club soda, and if you need to clear alcohol.
Any full-sugar soda is a poor summer choice, Cross says. One soda can contain 16 teaspoons of sugar - and that sneaky corn sugar in it. Sugar makes you thirsty. All sodas, even diet, she says, contains many chemicals that do nothing for you. "I do soda for cleaning fixed in jars," she says. "Just soak overnight!"
"Summer drinks," muses Blue should have "plenty of ice, fruit juice, and sparkle."
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