Many of us eat low calorie and low fat foods, but we pay little attention to the calorie intake from our alcoholic beverages. We are eating right, but we aren't loosing weight. This may be coming from what we drink. For me I drink a very specific beverage that consists of white rum and diet ginger beer, this concoction is 2 points on my weight watcher program. It gives me a number that tells me to stop the beverage consumption or cut down on the food later.
“With two in three adults overweight
or obese and given that adults who drink get approximately 10% of their
calories from alcohol, this move could make a major different to waistlines of
the nation".
The European Commission has already
made a public commitment to make a decision on extending nutrition labelling
and calorie labelling on alcoholic beverages by December 2014.
As it stands, alcoholic products are
not classified as food under current EU laws and are therefore exempt from
normal food labeling.
“Calorie labeling has been
successfully introduced for a wide range of food products and there is now a
clear public appetite for this information to be extended to alcohol to help
individuals make informed choices,” said Shirley Cramer CBE, chief executive of
RSPH.
“While we continue to back unit
labeling for alcoholic drinks, we believe that many people find calorie
labelling easier to translate into their everyday lives".
This labeling will also help us make decisions as to the amount of sugar that is added to our spirits and other flavors and chemicals. This would help prevent some "panic" over things like "PG" in my fireball, because it will be on the label and you can make a choice as to drink it or not.
The US should look carefully at this labeling ideas as well and get it implemented soon. ;o)
