UK against wine calories

by S. C.

The high calorific content of alcohol will be the latest focus of the Government's drive on Britain's drinking culture.
The hope is that by showing that the average wine drinker consumes an extra 2,000 calories a month - the equivalent of 184 bags of crisps - people will cut down on their alcohol.
Britain is one of the fattest nations in Europe and is also classed as being home to the biggest drinkers.
In England two thirds of adults and one third of children are either overweight or obese.
Few middle class drinkers realise that a couple sharing a bottle of red wine a night are both consuming the equivalent of a Snickers chocolate bar in alcohol. This means a woman would consume eight days' worth of calories in a week. Over a year this would mean putting more than two stone in fat unless those extra calories were burned off in exercise or food intake was reduced to compensate.
A man drinking five pints of lager a week would consume 44,200 calories in alcohol a year, the equivalent to 221 doughnuts, and put on 12 pounds of fat unless he cut his diet elsewhere.
A YouGov poll found that the average wine drinker admits to consuming around a bottle of wine per week, a spokesman for the Department of Health said.
A survey conducted by the Know Your Limits campaign found that one in three drinkers say they order crisps, nuts or pork scratching with their alcohol, piling on more calories and a fifth would grab a burger or takeaway when drinking more than two pints of beer or two glasses of wine.
A person needs to consume 500 more calories a day than they burn off for a week, or 3,500 calories in total, to put on between one and two pounds of fat, a spokesman for the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research centre in Cambridge said.
Government guidelines say women should drink no more than two to three units a day and men no more than three to four. There is eight grams of alcohol and seven calories in a UK unit of alcohol.
Large glass (250ml) of average strength red wine = 214 calories = one bag of Cheesy Wotsits.
A bottle of average strength red wine = 644 calories = 14 jaffa cakes or McDonald's Cheeseburger and medium fries.
Large glass of medium dry white wine = 190 calories = two and a half digestive biscuits.
Bottle of medium dry white wine = 570 calories = chicken with cashew nuts and egg fried rice.
One pint of premium lager = 330 calories = one four ounce fillet steak
One pint of cider = 200 calories = one KFC chicken drumstick
Large Bailey's (100ml) = 320 calories = one Snickers bar
One shot (25ml) of vodka or gin = 55 calories = one 25ml serving of single cream

Origin: Human Nutrition Research