My favourite tipple is a double vodka with diet coke (the coke filled
to the top) in a average glass served by pubs in the UK.

1. Can anyone tell me the average kcal calories content of a glass?
2. If I drank an average of 8-10 glasses of these on a weekend night
out, how many calories would I be consuming?
3. Would adding ice help reduce calorie content or increase sobriety?
Or no different?
4. What is the lowest calories double spirits and mixer? (But with
equal strength of alcohol)?
5. Does an increase in alcohol strength mean an increase in calories?
6. Is eating food (e.g. kebab, chips) after a drinking binge harmful
or not? e.g. helps reduce hangovers, or increases nausea in morning
etc. What is recommended? Should I drink water before eating food, or
after eating food? Or both or does it make no different?

Tips will be given for thorough answers.

Hello pinkhippo.

The figures I've found for a standard English pub measure of vodka
vary from 51 to 53 calories. Let's be pessimistic and say 53. Double
that to 106 and that's the calorie count for a standard double vodka.
The good news is that diet Coke adds almost nothing. You have to drink
250 mils, nearly half a (British) pint, to consume 1 whole calorie. So
8 double-vodka-and-diet-cokes are going to 'cost' you about 850
calories, while 10 drinks put you over 1000 calories (about 1064).


vodka measure 53 calories
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/spotlight/2002/05/food.shtml

0.4 calories per 100 mils diet coke
http://www.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,3605,821146,00.html

All the standard spirits have the same calorie content, and most
'diet' mixers are so low calorie as to be forgettable - so there's not
much to choose between your tipple of choice and, say, a double whisky
with 'diet' ginger.

list of calorie values for drinks
http://www.feelingfat.net/articles/menart01.asp



ICE

Adding ice or water will make no difference to the calorie content but
it may help reduce the possible hangover problems associated with
dehydration. The only way it could affect sobriety would be if it
changed the total amount of alcohol you drank.

"During drinking: try to intersperse your drinks with a glass of water
- ignore your mates if they call you a Jessie as they'll be laughing
on the other side of their faces come the morn."
http://www.theakstons.co.uk/beer/old_peculier/hangover_advice.html

To work out long you will feel less than sober, you have to remember
the standard advice that it takes the body about one hour to deal with
one unit of alcohol. A double vodka is 2 units, so it will be about
two hours before it vanishes from the system.

"One unit of alcohol =
Half a pint of beer
A glass of wine
A shot of spirits........
It takes approximately one hour to get rid of each unit you drink."

BBC advice on student drinking
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire/student_life/hangover.shtml

Drinking water throughout the evening and at bedtime is strongly
recommended but I haven't found any reason to think it should be
before or after food.


FOOD

When it comes to alcohol, eating before, during and after drinking is
mostly good, though opinion varies on whether greasy food will suit
you. Perhaps it's a matter of personal taste?

Eating before drinking affects the rate at which alcohol affects you:

"Eating before drinking  - alcohol is absorbed more quickly on an
empty stomach - hence the expression “that drink's gone straight to my
head.”
http://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/Advice/immediate%20effects.htm

Opinion on eating a kebab and chips at bedtime varies.  It suits some
people:

"Chinese Takeaway - Eating a greasy chinese or a curry, on the way
home, will often enable you to replace energy and chemicals that your
body has lost. It will enable you to get a better night's sleep, as
your blood-sugar level will rise, and you can drink plenty of water or
cola whilst you eat. Don't eat a very large meal, as this will prevent
you from sleeping. Try to wait for an hour before going to bed, as by
then the digestion will be well underway, An added bonus is that you
won't have to get up in the night as often to empty your bladder"

Hangovers
http://www.rocknroll.force9.co.uk/pubs/hangovers.htm

But these folk say no to greasy food:

Hangover advice
http://www.theakstons.co.uk/beer/old_peculier/hangover_advice.html

Eating *while* you're drinking can help the body process the alcohol
at a steadier rate and reduce the next day's hangover.  A good
breakfast the next day can help the recovery process.

Hangovers - who needs them?, by Colin Brennan (medical journalist)
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/menshealth/feature/hangovers.htm


Well, that's about it and I haven't given you a straight answer to 
your question about alcohol strength and calorie content. It's
complicated by other factors: e.g. what else is in the drink as well
as alcohol. But indeed a pint of vodka does have more calories than a
pint of beer. Pure alcohol has about 7 calories a gram.

You could pursue this question via these sites:
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=alcohol+calorie+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

I hope this helps you, pinkhippo.  Have fun this Christmas.  Please
get back to me if you need clarification.

Regards - Leli



search terms: alcohol drinking calorie vodka advice food takeaway
eating


extra info on alcohol and calories, link to alcohol by volume
calculator
http://www.ex.ac.uk/cimt/dictunit/notes6.htm#alcalories

more hangover advice
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=hangover+advice+water+food&btnG=Google+Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB

Has given me 'food' for thought.

You seem to be confusing alcohol calories with food calories. These
types of calories are metabolized quite differently, and it is the
interaction of the two metabolism processes that is important to
health, fitness and control of weight.

Please se the following...

http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm

Why alcohol calories aren't as important as most people think...
According to conventional wisdom, the infamous "beer belly" is caused
by excess alcohol calories being stored as fat.

However, researchers from the University of California have shown that
less than 5% of the alcohol calories you drink are turned into fat.
Rather, the main effect of alcohol is to reduce the amount of fat your
body burns for energy.

Alcohol calories
Successful weight loss is all about oxidizing (or burning), more
calories than you eat. When they go on a diet, many people choose
low-calorie alcoholic drinks, mainly because they contain fewer
alcohol calories than their regular counterparts.

However, this recent study, published in the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, shows that even a very small amount of alcohol has
a large impact on fat metabolism.

Eight men were given two drinks of vodka and lemonade separated by 30
minutes. Each drink contained just under 90 calories. Fat metabolism
was measured before and after consumption of the drink.

For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation
(a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by a massive
73%.


Here's why...
Rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is
conversion into a substance called acetate. In fact, blood levels of
acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal.
And it appears this sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss.

A car engine typically uses only one source of fuel. Your body, on the
other hand, draws from a number of different energy sources, such as
carbohydrate, fat, and protein. To a certain extent, the source of
fuel your body uses is dictated by its availability. In other words,
your body tends to use whatever you feed it.

Consequently, when acetate levels rise, your body simply burns more
acetate, and less fat. In essence, acetate pushes fat to the back of
the queue.

So, to summarize and review, here's what happens to fat metabolism
after the odd drink or two...

1. A small portion of the alcohol is converted into fat.

2. Your liver then converts most of the alcohol into acetate.

3. The acetate is then released into your bloodstream, and replaces
fat as a source of fuel.

Your bodies' response to alcohol is very similar to the way it deals
with excess carbohydrate. Although carbohydrate can be converted
directly into fat, one of the main effects of overfeeding with
carbohydrate is that it simply replaces fat as a source of energy.
That's why any type of diet, whether it's high-fat, high-protein, or
high-carbohydrate, can lead to a gain in weight.

The bottom line? 


Even a small amount of alcohol (this study used two servings of vodka
and lemonade) can have a big impact on the rate at which your body
burns fat -- even if the drink is low in calories.

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Reference

Siler, S.Q., Neese, R.A., & Hellerstein, M.K. (1999). De novo
lipogenesis, lipid kinetics, and whole-body lipid balances in humans
after acute alcohol consumption. American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, 70, 928-936