The final long weekend of summer is upon us, and for many that means camping, barbecues and some alcoholic beverages. Canadian drinkers may be surprised to hear that there are just as many calories in a few beers as there are in a double cheeseburger.
Adam Sherk, a University of Victoria (UVic) post-doctoral fellow at the universitysa国际传媒檚 Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, recently completed a study that calculated how many calories are consumed by Canadians via alcohol.
Sherk found that, on average, drinkers ingest 250 calories from alcohol per day. Those 250 calories are about 11 per cent of a personsa国际传媒檚 daily energy requirements. Sherk explained that itsa国际传媒檚 the same as eating a bag of chips each day.
sa国际传媒淚f we look at binge drinking, or having something like four or five drinks on one occasion, itsa国际传媒檚 actually closer to 550 calories, which is about 25 per cent of the recommended daily caloric intake,sa国际传媒� he noted. sa国际传媒淭hatsa国际传媒檚 the equivalent of a double cheeseburger with all the fixings.sa国际传媒�
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The study also revealed that 52.5 per cent of the calories came from beer, 21 per cent from wine, 20 per cent from spirits and 6.5 per cent from the category that included ciders and coolers.
The findings from the study were published in the Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research and the paper concludes with a call for alcohol containers to have comprehensive nutritional facts and health risks associated with drinking on the labels. Sherk and his co-authors pointed out that many drinkers arensa国际传媒檛 even aware of the caloric intake from alcohol because alcoholic beverage cans and bottles arensa国际传媒檛 required to list the nutritional facts.
sa国际传媒淕iven that the updated Canada Food Guide specifically highlights the importance of cutting back on sugary drinks, including alcohol, we think nutritional labels would be valuable,sa国际传媒� says Sherk. sa国际传媒淟abels could also be used to communicate information about alcoholsa国际传媒檚 other health risks, including cancer, stroke and heart disease, or details about Canadasa国际传媒檚 Low Risk Drinking Guidelines.sa国际传媒�
An info-graphic created to accompany the paper noted the authorsa国际传媒檚 suggestion to add the nutrition facts to alcohol containers and jokingly added in brackets that the other option is for Canadians to sa国际传媒渕aybe drink a little less beersa国际传媒a国际传媒�
devon.bidal@saanichnews.com
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