Have your keg and drink it too: can you stay slender and enjoy beer?
August 30, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments
After a long day of yard work, my gramps’ favorite refresher used to be a nice, tall, frosty bottle o’ beer.
It may not sound like the healthiest means of hydrating. But unlike me during my drinking days (of three ways between the likes of Mr. Guinness and Sir Sammy Smith), gramps managed to stay in top form. In retrospect, however, I suppose that’s ’cause he stayed active, made better beer choices than I did, and came equipped with the genetic trait I seemed to have missed out on: moderation. Because he was a man who knew how to space out his vices, homeboy could handle his threekly (that means three times a weekly, in Ashley-nese) indulgence sans expansion of the belly (or anything else, really). Dude was fit till the day he died. And while that was partly because of his dietary picks (literally – that yardwork was mostly in his garden, picking veggies for dinner), it also had to do with which drafts he drafted into is league of beers. Because, despite popular opinion about hops causing potbellies, not all of them are so bad. Granted, if you drink like I did, they totally are.
(They tie those aprons high and tight and make ’em floofy to hide the lager paunch
#truestoryIdidntjustmakeup.)
But there are some beers which (if consumed moderately) won’t wage war on your waistline.
For examp., for a few that’ll cost you fewer than 100 cals, there are these bad boys:
Amstel light: 95 cal
Anheuser Busch light pale lager: 95 cal
Beck’s premiere light: 63 cal
Budweiser select: 55 cal
Corona light: 99 cal
Heineken light: 99 cal
Michelob ultra: 95 cal
Miller MGD: 64 cal
Natural (“Natty”) light 95 cal
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying these are great quality beers. (Let’s call a thing a thing here.) I’m also not saying that drinking beer is going to make you lose weight. (Although a recent study has shown that something in the beer might aid with weight loss if isolated and concentrated). No, madams and sirs. Unfortunately, despite the refreshing taste, there’s not much buzz for your buck when it comes to the stuff. That’s part of the real reason people get porky – they tend to drink more of it to feel any effect because it has a lower alcohol content. And the more you drink, the more calories you’re getting.
(#Heindblow)
But, there’s more.
Though I hate to burst your bubbles rising to the surface of that Corona light, I’m gonna. Sure, five beers is still 500 calories, which is a lot. But add in the fact that you’re likely to land a case of the drunchies, and that’s even more calories. Add in the fact that bar food’s fattening, full of sugar, and addictive so you’ll order more – and that’s even more. But it doesn’t even stop there. For a final flourish, we’ll top it off with this nugget of knowledge: getting polluted puts your metabolism on the fritz (and encourages you to store fat). And… voila. We’ve got a beautiful recipe for blubber if you make a habit out’ve it. So, I’m not offering the magic Budweiser bullet. All I’m saying is that, of all the diet sabotaging intoxicants in the genre of beer, the above list’s the least inimical. So, whether you’re like my gramps, the resident cool girl of your squad, or just plain enjoy the taste (but don’t want the extra weight), there’s no need to ail yourself about your ale anymore.
Just audition some of these low-cal hops options, recruit a new brew, and don’t overdo it.
Well, not often at least.