Which is more fattning a 12oz. beer or a shot of whiskey.
In other words which one would I want to drink if I wanted
to loose wieght? (and please don’t say niether:) )
A two-minute Google search suggests 146 calories in a 12oz beer and between 97 and 124 calories in a 1.5oz shot of spirits (depending on type).
By the way, if you want to lose weight, don’t drink either. You can’t lose weight by drinking.
I’m not an expert on diet, but I’m pretty confident that more calories doesn’t necessarily mean more fattening. I would submit that the way foods interact with your body is difficult to boil down to one simple number.
That said, I know a good number of drinkers, and (based on my highly unscientific discussions with them) it seems pretty clear that beer is more fattening.
According to Wine Spectator
On average a 12 oz beer has 150 calories, a 5 oz serving of wine had 100 calories, and a 1.5 oz serving of spirits contain 100 calories. (Numbers are averaged and calories can vary as can alcoholic content, etc.) If you mix the whiskey with anything besides water, you’ll need to account for the caloric content of the mixer as well.
Not so, luc. Calories is calories is calories. Beer’s calories come from carbohydrates and ethyl alcohol (also a carbohydrate, but a pretty simple one), while whiskey’s come from alcohol alone. But the end result of metabolizing them is the same. Neither contain any essential fatty acids or amino acids to build useful stuff out of, so the body just burns them for energy or converts them to fat to store for energy.
And the way foods interact with your body to provide it basic energy can be reduced to one simple number, calories. Granted, if your GI tract is less adept at handling hi fiber or hi fats, you may absorb less, but this doesn’t come into play with beer and whisky.
Qadgop, MD
Well, that’s generally true, but it’s more complicated than that.
Unfiltered and bottle-krausened beers (like hefeweisens and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, respectively) contain yeast and sediments, and these may contain some additional proteins.
Also, beer contains a lot of B vitamins, which can enhance your appetite.
OTOH, some beers like Miller Lite or Coors Lite, and irish style ales which are naturally “light,” can contain as few as 90 calories per 12 oz. bottle.
Also, heavy consumers of hard liquor are known to have suppressed appetites. I once worked for a general contractor who carried a whiskey bottle with him everywhere, drank boilermakers for lunch, and his kitchen was stocked with little else than Jim Beam and Budweiser. I never saw him eat.
But this is not a recommended way to lose weight!!
Think about it, everyone has heard of a “beer belly” but when was the last time you heard of a “whiskey belly?”
There’s another part of the (male) anatomy that is often modified by the adjective “whiskey” but that’s another thread altogether.
Far be it to from me to argue with our resident Doc, but I can see a fairly easy way this wouldn’t necessarily be true.
If you swallow a shot of neat whisky the alcohol will be absorbed fairly fast fast because there is little carbohydrate, water etc. competing for absorption. The alcohol in the beer will be absorbed more slowly. Anyone who’s ever decided to get smashed on shots will confirm this. In someone who’s liver isn’t pre-primed for alcohol detox, more of the whisky will be excreted via the breath, sweat and urine. This will result in a lower calorific value for the whisky.
Granted this may be 4/5 of 5/8 of bugger all. I really don’t know.
Uh oh, this may be turning into a debate . . . hehe
A quick search on Webmd revealed the following:
Certainly, this research supports my view that not all calories are created equal.
I realize that it does not answer the “beer v. whiskey” question, but it seems to me that if we start from the assumption that not all calories are equal, it is definitely conceivable that beer is more fattening than whiskey. For example, if carbohydrates are easier to turn into fat than alcohol, then it is reasonable to hypothesize that beer is more fattening than whiskey.
At any rate, let me admit that I don’t know the answer for sure on this question. (Dammit Jim, I’m a lawyer not a doctor!)
Please feel free to cite research to convince me that “calories is calories.” I think it would be relevant to the “beer v. whiskey” question.
Beer might be the better solution, if you choose to live on it. Naturally, the vitamin and mineral content of beer varies from brand to brand, but you can be reasonably assured of getting a little bit of B1, B2, B6, folic acid, niacin, magnesium, calcium, iron, and zinc.
(Please, let’s all get over the high-school bullshit we are all fed by The Man. Alcohol is an empty calorie. Beer is far less than ten percent alcohol. Come up with the other ninety percent of beer’s composition before you tell me I’m full of it. Shit, that is, not beer.)
The problem is, one beer alone won’t get you anywhere near the minimum daily requirements for any of those substances above. Make it a six-pack, however, and you’re starting to get somewhere. I can say with complete assurance that one can go for years at a time on a twelve-pack a day, with the occasional pizza and martini olive. I’ve never weighed over 160 pounds.
In other words, in order to get any significant health benefits from beer, you have to be a drunk. And to prevent becoming overweight, you have to avoid certain things, like eating. That’s probably not healthy.
If you really want to lose weight and be healthy, you’re going to be told time and again that alcohol ain’t in the picture. Better learn to deal with it.
Well, a quick review of the literature certainly indicates the waters are now much muddier than when I originally learned this stuff.
Lucwarm the literature about replacing carbohydrate or other calories with alcohol calories causing weight loss was found in women only, interesting enough. Here’s a cite from a reputable source: http://www.confex.com/ift/98annual/accepted/75-2.htm
And now newer studies suggest that alcohol calories don’t contribute to fat molecule synthesis. Of course, it’s the wine institute web site posting the info, but I don’t know their relationship to the original research. http://www.wineinstitute.org/res_ed/newsflash/weight_cordain.htm
Anyway, it’s sad to be old and outdated, especially in the information age. Having now read Dr. Lands’ work (the first cite above) from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and alcoholism, I’d now have to say that if you’re gonna drink booze while trying to lose weight, better go with distilled spirits, as they get all their calories from ethanol, while most of Beer calories come from carbs. Of course, a strict whiskey diet has its own complications.
I should add, before admitting final defeat, that this theory has not been wholly embraced by the medical community yet, with many researchers saying that more study is needed.
BTW, here’s Dr. Lands’ theory as to why this might be so:
http://www.pantox.com/research/Publications/insulin-alcohol.html