I work in a research lab where we study the effects of a high sugar diet on fruit flies. From that, I've become very interested in the amount of sugar in foods and beverages that I consume. For whatever reason, calories are usually at the forefront of what is considered "healthy" or "unhealthy", but there is so much more that is important to consider than simply the caloric content, especially when it comes to alcohol.
One thing that is often overlooked is sugar. Until I started working in this lab, all I ever looked at was the calories and protein on nutrition labels. That all changed when I was asked to measure out 20 grams of sugar for an experiment, and I saw how much sugar was in 20 grams.
The next day, I was eating a Trader Joe's Greek yogurt for breakfast and was curious as to how many grams of sugar were in it. I thought I was eating a healthy breakfast and then I saw that it had 17 grams of sugar — I was SHOCKED. I had just measured out a small mountain of 20 grams of sugar the day before, and that's basically what I was eating.
Since then, I have become a lot more conscious of the amount of sugar in the foods I eat, so I decided it was time to do the same with the things I drink. Below is a list of alcohol, ranked by sugar content alone.
1. Beer, gin, rum, tequila, vodka, and whiskey - 0 grams of sugar
If you're trying to watch your sugar intake, listen to LMFAO and take: "shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots" because, besides club soda, basically everything you mix your vodka/gin/rum with has a ton of sugar. Don't believe me? Orange juice has 22 grams of sugar per 8 oz, Coca-Cola has 26 grams of sugar per 8 oz, and tonic water has 22 grams of sugar per 8 oz. That's a loooot of sugar, sugar.
2. Light beer - 0.32 grams per 12 fl oz bottle
Frat boys rejoice! Seriously — go shotgun another beer to celebrate. One Oreo cookie has 4.7 grams of sugar, which means you can have about 14.7 12 oz beers or one Oreo cookie (if all you're considering is sugar, of course). The choice seems pretty simple to me.
3. Dry wine - 3 grams of residual sugar per bottle
In world where a greek yogurt can have up to 16 grams of sugar, less than one gram of sugar in a glass of dry white wine seems good enough for me.
4. Medium dry wine - 3-9 grams of residual sugar per bottle
A standard glass of wine is 5 oz, so that means a glass of medium dry wine has between 0.75 grams and 1.8 grams of residual sugar per glass. To put that into perspective, 10 M&M'S have 10.2 grams of sugar, so the standard glass of medium dry doesn't seem half bad.
5. Sweet wine - more than 33.75 grams of residual sugar per bottle
If you're worried about sugar — maybe stick to a drier white wine.
The American Heart Association recommends that men consume less than 37.5 grams of added sugars per day and that women consume less than 25 grams per day. So, if you're worried about your daily sugar content, maybe stay away from sweet wines and drinks paired with sugary juices or sodas. But, if you're not concerned, hey, one sugary cocktail every once in a while certainly won't kill you.