If you’re as used to keep track of calories as I am, you shouldn’t let holiday cheer make you forget the content of cocktails.We all see cocktails like a glamorous and tasty alternative to beer and the typically mediocre wine sold in most bars. For those who exercise regularly and are in reasonably good physical shape, drinking a few Screwdrivers on Saturday night won’t be a big deal. But for anyone trying to shed a few pounds, any decent nutritionist would argue that alcohol and weight loss mix like whiskey and grapefruit juice.
That’s because the average serving of one ounce of 80-proof alcohol contains about 90 calories. And that’s before mixers are added. While we spend hours on treadmills or yoga mats and may smugly eschew dessert or ban butter from our diets, often we’ll happily consume a cocktail (or three 
) and this is a considerable peril to our waistlines. A Pina Colada, for example, has more calories than a Big Mac (that could spoil happy hour on our next trip to Mexico).
While most alcohol doesn’t contain actual fat, its calories tend to be stored in the abdomen. “It’s hard for the body to process and eliminate many alcohols at one time, and sugar makes us fat,” says Michael George, a fitness expert and author of Body Express Makeover.
It doesn’t mean that the occasional cocktail will instantly result in a beer belly, but we shouldn’t be fooled just because these drinks taste light and fruity. Not only do spirits, such as vodka, gin, rum and whiskey, contain a higher percentage of calories than beer and wine, but if you add fruit juice, syrups and sodas to the mix the calorie count keeps growing (for example, orange juice has 56 calories per serving and Coca-Cola has 105 calories per eight fluid ounces ) …
If you’re thinking that drinking fewer cocktails with a bigger kick will solve that problem, not a chance! The higher the proof, the greater the calories!
- vodka with a splash of juice (have a glass of water to sip, too)
- vodka on the rocks or with soda water (even better)
- watermelon martini (a fruity, pink mixture of vodka, simple syrup and pureed watermelon which has only 125 calories)
- any type of liquor on the rocks (those who were once margarita drinkers, is better that you drink Corazon Blanco, and instead of adding the sweet and fattening syrups, just putt it on the rocks) !
- white wine spritzers (a five ounce glass contains 100 calories)
- cocktails fresh-squeezed juices.
I like martinis more than any alcoholic beverage. My faves are a chocotini, appletini, and a classic cosmo!So ladies, what is your favorite cocktail or drink when you hit the bar with a date?
Love you!
source:msnbc.msn.com
December 18th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
key lime martini! woo hoo!
December 19th, 2006 at 7:24 am
Hi Kia, excelent choice! Key Lime Martini rocks! We should have a drink =)) Not too many, anyway…Martini contains 175 calories/100ml!
October 25th, 2007 at 4:40 am
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December 6th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
unforuntuanley i don’t drink soo i wouldn’t have to worry..yeah for me..
December 6th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
I’ve never had a cocktail, but I’d like to try a chocotini!
December 11th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
never? cocktails are great!
December 14th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
defintately try out caipirinha, i love it!
December 15th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
And there’s a non - alcoholic version of almost every cocktail, too!
But you shouldn’t drink them to often since they have a zillion calories!