RSPH Study on Caloric Knowledge of Alcohol as EU labelling Wines by December 2014

“Quite startling really - 80% of adults have no idea what the calorie count is in anything they're drinking and if they do think they have an idea they totally underestimate it anyway. It could help the nation's waistlines as well as probably reduce Alcohol consumption”

Royal Society for Public Health Chief Executive, Shirley Cramer in an interview with the BBC News

I personally had no idea that Wine had calories. But it’s now a concern, especially as increasing consumption of Wines means that a Wine Shortage is realistically possible as predicted in my blog article entitled “Australian analyst Morgan Stanley Stats say World Faces Global Wine Shortage - The Glass is either Half Empty of Half full as Chinese and Americans become more like the French”.

But they do, claims the RSPH (Royal Society for Public Health), more than 200 Calories on average, the equivalent to eating a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnut as stated in the article “Alcohol calorie Content: Labels needed, say doctors”, published 31 October 2014 Last updated at 00:10 GMT By James Gallagher, Health editor, BBC News and “Calorie labels on Alcohol mean drinkers consume less”, published 31 Oct 2014 6:00AM GMT By Laura Donnelly, Health Editor, The UK Telegraph.

The RSPH (Royal Society for Public Health) polled some 2,117 people, mostly British to gauge the level of awareness of Caloric Content of their favorite Wines, spirits and Beers as reported in “Put calorie labels on Beer, Wine and spirits, say public health experts”, published Friday 31 October 2014 by Sarah Boseley, Health Editor, The UK Guardian.

RSPH study on Caloric Knowledge of Alcohol – British Drinkers have no idea of Caloric Content of Wines

The results their Nationwide Study of Brits were startling, even to me:

1.      80% don't know or incorrectly estimated how many calories were in a large glass of Wine

2.      60% don't know how many calories there are in 1 pint (473.18 ml) of Lager Beer

3.      67% would welcome calorie labels on Alcoholic drinks

In fact there seems to be a direct relationship between the percentage of Alcohol in a Drink and the amount of Calories:

1.      250ml of 8% Wine contains 170 Calories

2.      250ml of 14% Wine contains 230 Calories

3.      473.17 ml (1 pint) of 4% Beer contains 180 calories

4.      275ml alcopop contains 170 calories

According to the Royal Society for Public Health, 10% of an adult's calorie intake comes from Alcohol with Alcohol, being the second highest sources of Calories after Fat. What that translates to mean in practical terms is that 4 pints of Beer, roughly 1892ml, the typical British Man's intake on a single night of drinking is the Caloric equivalent of 23 hamburgers or 73 minutes of strenuous exercise.

And most Drinkers don’t know about it, to quote Royal Society for Public Health Chief Executive, Shirley Cramer: “I don’t think they think about it. We go out at lunchtime and look at the sandwiches on display. We know and understand what the labelling means. We pick the sandwich or salad on the basis of the calories. But people don’t think about that when they go out on a Friday night”.

In summing up their Study, the RSPH requested that Labels be placed on Alcoholic Beverages i.e. Wines, Spirits and Beers showing the Caloric Content with the greatest of urgency, quote: “We would argue that in addition to this information, calorie Content should be included with some urgency”.

This as the RSPH’s Study makes an explicit link between Alcohol and obesity. So now that everyone in Europe realized that Alcohol DOES have calories, does it mean that the EU will start becoming more serious about product labelling on Wines, Spirits and Beers?

Caloric Content of Alcohol linked to Obesity – EU moving to labels Wines by December 2014

This is a huge concern in the European Union, as in Europe and Britain, most foods have to be labels to show Caloric and other nutritional information. Wines, spirits and anything containing Alcohol has traditionally escaped the scrutiny of the Public Health ministries of many European countries....until now that is!

To get an idea of how little you may known about the Caloric Content of Wines, Spirits and Beers, the UK Guardian has created a Quiz to test the public’s general knowledge of the nutritional Content of Wines as noted in the article “Quiz: how many calories are in these Alcoholic drinks?” published Friday 31 October 2014 10.47 GMT by George Arnett and Ami Sedghi, The UK Guardian.

To this end, the European Union is moving to recommend that labels indicating the Nutritional and Caloric Content of Wines, Spirits and Beers be mandatory among members of the EU in a bid to reduce Alcohol’s impact on obesity.

Of course, the Portman Group, the Trade body that represents makers of Wines, Spirits and Beers in the UK, was quick to point out it had no problem with co-operating with any requirement to have labeling, son long as it doesn’t include Caloric Content, quote: “Drinks producers can play a key role in informing and educating consumers and are open to further discussions about calorie information. However, it is essential that Alcohol Content, not calorie Content, should primarily inform consumer decision-making”.

This as it may logical result in Brits drinking less. After all, the Royal Society for Public Health reveals that many are blissfully ignorant of the Caloric Content of Alcohol despite knowing the Alcoholic Content of their Wines, Spirits and Beers and 67% would welcome it. That means quite simply that if the information were made readily available on the label, the health-conscious British may decide to not drink as much, resulting in a drop in sales overall.

Caloric Content of Alcohol – Similar Dilemma with Fast Food and Sodas with high Caloric Content

Among Brits, two-thirds of adults are obese or overweight, predisposing them to heart disease, stroke, cancer and type 2 diabetes. However, it is estimated that nearly 10% of a typical British Adults daily calorific intake comes from Alcohol, prompting RSPH to make the connection to obesity, quote: “The public’s health is under threat from an obesity epidemic and harm caused by irresponsible consumption of Alcohol”.

In fact they went on further to suggest that little is being done by the British and EU Health Authority to make the connection between Alcohol and weight gain, quote: “While there has been much work to look at the causes and consequences of the twin threats in isolation, less has been done to look at the links between Alcohol and weight gain.”

Good to note that the less Alcoholic a drink is in terms of APV (Alcohol per Volume), the fewer Calories it will contain. But mixers, common in most Alcoholic drinks such as Palcohol as explained in my blog article entitled “Businessman Mark Phillip's Palcohol gets TTD Approval – Drinkers will judge Powdered Alcohol from Low Temperature Nitrogen Atmosphere Vacuum Evaporation” are more fattening, as they have more fructose or maltose sugars, which the body converts to fat instead of converting to Glucose and thus energy.

But that's not even the real danger of Alcohol. Alcohol is also converted to acetate in the liver, damaging the liver over time and resulting in Cirrhosis of the liver, the same thing that killed Minister of Agriculture Roger Clarke. It also goes into the bloodstream and inhibits the body converting stored and consumed Fat to Glucose for energy, causing the body to store more.

It also interferes with hormone Serotonin that regulate appetite, causing Drinkers to feel hungrier and experience the munchies, a symptom typical of smokers of Marijuana. They thus feel less full and eat more, thus gaining more weight.

The consumption of Beers to the phenomenon of Beer Belly is thus not too far from the mark! So the more you drink the great your risk of obesity and therefore your risk of developing heart disease, stroke, cancer and type 2 diabetes.

Britain, like Jamaica, is already facing a Health Epidemic from an increase in Lifestyle related diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cancer and type 2 diabetes, albeit the target of Minister of Health Dr. Fenton Ferguson has mainly been Fast Food as noted in my blog article entitled “Min. of Health, Dr. Fenton Ferguson proposes financing Health Care via a Fast Food and Junk Food Tax - Jamaican High Schoolers Addiction to American style Fast Food”.

It’ll be interesting to see if Jamaica may also follow suit and decided that all labeling for Alcoholic Beverages i.e. Wines, Spirits and Beers to warn the drinking public this Christmas about the Caloric Content of their Favourite Drinks.