Alcohol and sugar

Too much sugar in your diet can make you gain weight and is also one of the main causes of tooth decay.¹ You would probably expect to find sugar in sweets, cakes, and fizzy drinks but did you know that alcoholic drinks can be full of sugar too?

A pint of cider can contain around 46 grams of sugar – more than the NHS recommended daily limit of no more than 30g of ‘free sugars’ a day (sugars added to food or drinks or sugars that occur naturally in foods, for example honey). This is roughly equivalent to seven sugar cubes.^2,3

Alcoholic drinks are full of ‘empty calories’ (from the alcohol, as well as any sugar content) and have no useful nutritional value which is why alcohol can be bad news for your waistline.⁴

Regular heavy drinking increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. And if you have diabetes already, alcohol can make controlling your blood sugar more difficult.^5,6

How sugar affects your body

Too much sugar is bad for your heath in a number of ways.

Firstly, it’s very high in calories and excessive consumption can lead to unhealthy weight gain. Being overweight can make you more susceptible to long-term health problems, including life threatening illnesses such as heart disease, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes.⁷

Sugar is also the main cause of tooth decay,⁸ which can lead to cavities if left untreated.

Sugar in alcoholic drinks

Alcoholic drinks are responsible for nine percent of the ‘free sugar’ consumed by people aged between 19-64 in the UK.⁹ Despite this, many people forget to factor in what they drink when calculating their daily sugar intake.

All alcoholic drinks contain some sugar, but some have more than others. Fortified wines, sherries, liqueurs, cider, and pre-mixed drinks like ‘alcopops’ have particularly high levels. A 2020 study found that the alcoholic drink with the highest sugar content has more than 15 teaspoons of sugar in its 700ml pack.¹⁰

The calories people consume through alcohol are usually additional to the calories they consume in the rest of their diet, rather than a replacement.^11,12 That means you could be having lots of extra calories in your drinks without thinking about it, and that can lead to weight gain.¹³

And because sometimes people choose to mix spirits like gin, vodka, and whisky with fizzy drinks, the sugar content doesn’t always stop with the alcoholic part.

Alcohol and diabetes

If you have diabetes, drinking alcohol can lead to ‘hypoglycaemic unawareness’.¹⁴ In other words, the combined effect of the reduction in your blood sugar with the disinhibiting effect of alcohol can mean you’re less likely to notice the warning signs of low blood sugar.¹⁵

This results in a much higher risk of severe hypos (when the level of glucose in your blood drop too low) – which significantly increases the risk of heart problems and brain damage.¹⁶

How to cut down on alcohol

If you’re worried about maintaining a healthy weight, it makes sense to track how many units of alcohol and calories you’re having:

• This can help you stick to the recommended daily calorie intake of around 2,000 calories (kcal) for women, or around 2,500 calories for men¹⁷
• It can also help you stick to the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines – no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days with several drink-free days and no bingeing¹⁸

It’s also a good idea to avoid drinking on an empty stomach. Food helps slow down the rate at which your body absorbs alcohol, meaning your blood glucose level isn’t affected as significantly.^19,20

The free MyDrinkaware app is an easy way to keep track of both the units and the calories in your alcoholic drinks, with personalised goals to keep you motivated on your journey.

Download the MyDrinkaware App