I would think that beer is grains and wine is fruit, but is it that simple? How much counts as a serving? What about hard alcohol? Thanks for your replies.
According to the current USDA Food Pyramid, alcohol falls under what they call “discretionary calories” — in other words, stuff with little to no nutritional value that you probably shouldn’t be consuming anyway. Sorry.
ETA: Beaten to the punch! I shouldn’t have wasted time looking up the Health Canada Food Guide for comparison… For what it’s worth, it doesn’t categorize alcohol at all, though it does encourage you to “[l]imit your intake of soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, fruit drinks, punches, sweetened hot and cold beverages and alcohol.” (Bolding mine)
beer in the past has been called ‘liquid bread’
Makes a lousy sandwich.
You just need liquid fillings.
Roast beef au merlot smoothie, anyone?
Wine is in the food group called: Absolutely, positively must have several servings every day to maintain sanity.
Seen at a winery recently: Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Alcohol has seven calories per gram. Compare that with carbs with 9 calories and amino acids with four.
Probably truer when applied to ancient beers, which were basically diluted fermented grain mush, than to their more refined modern counterparts with higher alcohol content and more “empty calories”.
Ancient beers not only provided a fair amount of nutrition as food but also, thanks to fermentation and alcohol, kept the drinker’s liquid intake safer from water-borne pathogens.
Agree, and I would put good Scots whiskey in there too. IN MODERATION, they do no harm. They can help a person to relax (relieve stress), augment the taste of a meal, facilitate social interactions, etc. If you can’t get to sleep, a little nip once in a while can help.
The thing is to do it in moderation, just like anything else. Like the commercial says, “drink responsibly”.
Fat has 9 calories, carbs and protein have 4.
Beer is in the nectar category.
:smack: I knew something was wrong with my statement.
Liquid sugars. Both alcohol and fructose are processed in the liver.
Depends on which “food group” system you are using. The USDA Pyramid is only one such scheme.
According to my personal scheme, each meal should include at least one selection from the following food groups:
- Starch
- Salt
- Sugar
- Grease
- Alcohol
I may be disremembering, but on one episode of Night Court, I think Harry was talking to a vagrant-looking guy that ate light bulbs or nails or something. He informed Harry that the four basic groups were wood, metal, plastic and the white stuff inside Twinkies.
I assume that the numbers down the left are the quantities of each that are recommended. In a few sips time I will have achieved my alcohol ration.