What are the sugar levels in wine, beer, highballs, and other alcoholic beverages that are okay to drink while restricting carbohydrates?

Cheers with beer, wine, or highballs! What about carbohydrates?

Today, I would like to explain whether it is okay to drink alcohol when restricting carbohydrate intake, as many people are wondering about this.

Alcohol has two problems: the amount of sugar it contains, and the vitamins and minerals it causes to be lost due to the strain it places on the body when metabolizing alcohol and its increased diuretic effect. First, let's talk about sugar depending on the type of alcohol.

Distilled alcoholic drinks such as highballs and shochu contain almost no sugar!

Distilled alcohol contains almost no sugar, so there is no problem with drinking it. On the other hand, plum wine, sake, beer, white liquor, rose wine, Shaoxing wine, etc. contain a lot of sugar, so it is best to avoid them.

What do you think about sugar in beer?

The 2015 edition (7th edition) of the Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan has changed the way we think about carbohydrates in beer. The carbohydrate content of beer is still 3.1g per 100ml, but the concept of available carbohydrates (monosaccharide equivalents) has been introduced.

As a result, the available carbohydrates (monosaccharide equivalents) in beer are now classified as "Tr," meaning "estimated to be present in trace amounts."

Previously, the amount of carbohydrates was measured using a method called the "subtraction method." This involves first calculating the total (g) of moisture, protein, fat, and ash, and then calculating the remainder as the amount of carbohydrates.

Instead, the available carbohydrates (starch, glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose, maltose, lactose, trehalose) are calculated, and the amounts are calculated by multiplying each component value by 1.10 for starch and 1.05 for disaccharides, and then adding up the amounts of these and monosaccharides.

So, drinking a small amount of beer is probably okay.

What about sugar in wine?

Wine has a strong image of being healthy because of the polyphenols it contains.

I often hear that wine doesn't make you fat, but I feel like I often see wine lovers who end up gaining weight.

I don't drink much alcohol myself, but sometimes when I drink white wine I find it tastes quite sweet, and I was sure it must be high in sugar, so I decided to look into it in more detail.

Sugar in wine

The carbohydrate and dietary fiber amounts contained in wine are as follows. Since the dietary fiber amount is 0 in both cases, the carbohydrate amount is essentially the sugar amount.

Food Ingredients	Wine / White	Wine / red	Wine / Rosé
Calories kcal	73	73	77
Protein g	0.1	0.2	0.1
Fat g	Tr	Tr	Tr
Carbohydrates g	2.0	1.5	4.0
Dietary Fiber g	-	-	-

Source: Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan 2015 Edition (7th Edition)

As mentioned above, only rosé is a little high, and red and white wines have less carbohydrates than beer, and the available carbohydrates are 0.2g for red wine and 1.1g for white wine, so red wine, like beer, should not be a problem. However, it is important to note that the wines we usually drink are often not of this type.

Beware of sugar in sweet wines!

As mentioned above, red wine has 1.5g of sugar per glass (100g) and white wine has 2.0g per glass (100g), so it seems like wine doesn't make you fat, but these figures are only for the sugar content of dry wines . This is the same as the sugar content of strawberries and tomatoes being listed as low. There is no way that the sugar content of wild strawberries and the Tochiotome strawberries, which have been bred over many years, is the same. Some sweet wines have nearly 10g of sugar.

How to tell the difference between dry and sweet wines

So what is the difference between dry and sweet wines? Wine is made by fermenting grapes, and if yeast ferments the sugar, the wine becomes dry. If the activity of yeast is suppressed and sugar is left, the wine becomes sweet. In other words, whether a wine is sweet or dry is determined by the amount of sugar remaining in the wine. As fermentation progresses, the alcohol content also increases, so wines with a high alcohol content are dry, and those with a low alcohol content are sweet. On the other hand, it seems possible to make a high-alcohol, sweet wine by using late-harvested grapes or grapes whose sugar content has been increased with a special bacteria, but it may be difficult for beginners to know the production method and alcohol content. On the other hand, sparkling wines, which I will introduce next, can be determined by the label.

Sugar content in champagne and sparkling wine

Sparkling wine also varies greatly in sugar content depending on the production method. It is important to note that sugar is added in a process called "dosage" to adjust the flavor. By the way, only sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France is called champagne. We recommend checking the label to see the sugar content.

Sparkling wines are classified as follows according to their sugar content. (The sugar content is per 100cc glass.) ・Brut Nature: Less than 0.3g ・Extra Brut: 0-0.6g ・Brut: 0.6-1.2g ・Extra Dry: 1.2-1.7g ・Sec: 1.7-3.2g ・Demi Sec: 3.2-5.0g ・Doux: 5.0g or more

[Direct from Dr. Akira Aoki, the sommelier doctor] If you want bubbles that won't make you fat, go for Brut! A must-see for professionals! Quoted from How to choose wine for dieting

Remember that wines that start with B are low in carbs, and wines that start with D are high in carbs. As expected, sweet wines that are easy to drink are high in carbs, so you need to be careful about the amount you drink. If you like wine and think, "I'm gaining weight even though wine isn't supposed to make you fat," then consult with the store clerk or sommelier and choose a dry wine.

What should we think about drinks with zero carbohydrates or sugar?

Most products use artificial sweeteners. Although there is nothing to be afraid of in small amounts, it is said that there is a possibility that insulin may be secreted in response to the sweetness, so avoid drinking too much.

The problem of vitamins and minerals lost during alcohol metabolism

I think that after reading this far, many of you are probably thinking that it's actually OK to drink alcohol if you're restricting carbohydrates.

It is true that most alcoholic beverages are not a problem if you don't drink too much, but when alcohol is metabolized, it reduces the vitamins and minerals that are important when restricting carbohydrates, such as vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, folic acid, vitamin C, vitamin K, zinc, magnesium and potassium.

Therefore, when drinking alcohol, you should not drink unlimited amounts just because it has a low sugar content, but rather you should consider the consumption of vitamins and minerals and the burden on your liver.

summary

If we only consider carbohydrates, there are many alcoholic drinks that are high in carbohydrates, so there are many that you can drink, but when you consider the consumption of vitamins and minerals and the burden on the body, we do not recommend drinking a lot of them.

Let's not get too stressed out over this. See you next time!