Low-cal summer drinking tips

Every week expert nutritionist and clinical hypnotherapist Lowri Turner answers your health, fitness and wellbeing questions. This week: Low-cal summer drinking tips

It’s the unmistakeable scent of summer. No, not roses or cut grass, but food sizzling on a barbecue. Eating outside in the sunshine with your friends and family is one of the great joys of this time of year (when it doesn’t tip it down, of course)… And with al fresco meals come al fresco drinks – nice cool glasses of wine, spritzers, fresh, fruity cocktails, chilled ciders and the inevitable pitcher of Pimm’s.

However, there is one problem with all this – the muffin top issue. Barbecue food can be really healthy if you avoid fatty cuts of meat and head for the marinaded chicken breasts and grilled halloumi or prawns, plus plenty of salad. But drinks? They can really pile on the pounds. A pint of cider take have up to 250 calories and you may have two or three of those over the course of a long, hot summer afternoon, adding up to a whopping 750 calories!

Worrying about the calories in your drinks can be just as miserable. No-one wants to spoil their enjoyment of a summer party by doing a mental tot-up of drink calories, or worse tapping the running total into a diet app. The answer is to choose carefully. Here are a few top tips:

1. Bring your own diet mixers
If you love Pimms, offer to be the one to make it and mix it up with diet lemonade.

2. Choose your grape variety wisely
Wines vary hugely in alcohol content and calories. Unfortunately, low alcohol wines aren’t always low calories ones. The key to keeping the calories under control is to look for an alcohol content of 11 – 12% maximum but also to select the grape variety with care. Avoid heavy New Zealand sauvignon blancs or Chilean chardonnays and instead arrive with your own bottle of French chablis or muscadet or a light Portugese vinho verde.

3. Avoid cider
Yes, cider may be fashionable, but it’s packed with sugar, so stick to wines or spirits with low-cal mixers.

4. Ban fruit cocktails
Even before you add the alcohol, fruit juice is high in calories. Tropical juices like mango are usually sweetened and even cranberry is packed full of added sugar. If you’re thirsty have a glass of water or diet mixer before your alcoholic drink.

5. Prepare before you go
If you know you’re going to a summer party where the drink will be flowing, do a little extra work in the gym beforehand. That way you can ‘earn’ your summer tipples and enjoy them guilt free.