How many times have you wondered about the nutrition information or ingredients in an alcoholic beverage you were drinking?
Although any food or drink not containing alcohol that is packaged for purchase discloses all nutrition information, including calories per serving, fat content, nutrients, and ingredients, it seems that once alcohol is added, the FDA doesn't require any of this information to be present on the label. Why the heck not? I want to know just how badly I'm blowing my diet when I have my wine or beer or other libation.-- XSarenkaX, Jul 08 2002 ATF Online http://www.atf.trea...gulations/index.htmI couldn't find anything that forbids labeling, just the bare minimum requirements. [XSarenkaX, Jul 09 2002] Nutrition Label Guide http://www.cfsan.fd...v/~dms/foodlab.htmlHey, they chose Mac & Cheese for their example label! [XSarenkaX, Jul 09 2002] USFDA Food Labeling & Nutrition http://www.cfsan.fd...v/~dms/lab-ind.htmlMore info on labeling regulations [XSarenkaX, Jul 09 2002] FAQ page on food labels http://vm.cfsan.fda.../%7Edms/qa-top.html [XSarenkaX, Jul 09 2002] Alcohol & Calorie Content of Regular & Light Beers http://www.barshots.com/beercalories.htm [XSarenkaX, Jul 09 2002] UK version http://www.foodstan...v.uk/foodlabelling/ [angel, Jul 10 2002] My Favorite Beer http://www.leinie.c...oom/berry_weiss.aspYummy! [XSarenkaX, Jul 12 2002] It's especially bad for vegetarians, as ingredients derived from fish are commonly used as clarifying agents in wine.-- pottedstu, Jul 08 2002 I am voting against this on principle: the measurements in the FDA labels are grossly misleading, over-complicated, and are in large part the reason why so many Americans are so grossly overweight these days (too damn confused about what to eat).
The only measurement that should be shown is a recommended portion size and what food group the food fits into. Then you can use your own experience and judgement as to how many portions you want from that food group.
(Some few individuals need more information, such as peanut or caffeine content; that can be placed in small print at the bottom.)
P.S. Fat content is irrelevant to alcoholic drinks, as there is none; all the (many) calories are in the alcohol and sugar.-- DrCurry, Jul 08 2002 I like how on the side of rolling rock, it says 'No Artificial additives or anything'. Kind of get the impression that whoever wrote that was actually drunk at the time.-- [ sctld ], Jul 08 2002 envisages buying a drink at the pub and having the barman plonk a little sticker on the glass. "not only is this going to damage your liver but contains 1,000 kcal and will make you fatter than you are now - loser".-- po, Jul 08 2002 I know there is a hatred of the standards that FDA has settled on, but at least they require foods to use the same standards. You can at least compare foods to each other to determine which contains more desirable content. My battle is not to change the nutrition standards now in place, just to include ALL consumables, including those containing alcohol, when labeling nutritional information.
Perhaps you personally don't use the ingredients listing or whatever, but that doesn't mean it should be left off or in small print. I am interested in knowing of all the unpronounceables they throw into our foods and drinks these days. I am in favor of disclosing more information to the public so they can make their own decisions.-- XSarenkaX, Jul 08 2002 Down with Phenylethalamine!-- [ sctld ], Jul 08 2002 I think it might be because the beverages are under the purview of the BATF rather than the FDA.-- bookworm, Jul 08 2002 ¯[ sctld ]: /… Down with Phenylethalamine…/ I'd expect to find that in a pillow, but?-- reensure, Jul 08 2002 Maybe, ha ha, alcohol companies could voluntarily provide this information for the weight conscious. As a service to their valued customers. Or maybe an "Alcohol Consumption Association" could be created to monitor the nutritional content/ lack thereof in the current crop of bev's.-- polartomato, Jul 08 2002 How does the FDA list the worm in Tequila? 'Protein content?'-- RayfordSteele, Jul 09 2002 One thing they could list is the caloric content- insignificant in the case of the worm, but high as far as the alcohol itself.-- polartomato, Jul 09 2002 One unit of alcohol (8 grams or approx 10 ml) has 56 calories. There is however a large amount of additional sugar in most alcoholic drinks.-- pottedstu, Jul 09 2002 Some of you are insisting there isn't much to list because alcoholic consumables tend to be basic. Regardless of how little may be listed, I still want to see, even if there are a lot of zeros. Bottled water lists the same nutritional information that your frozen pizza does, even though it has 0 calories, 0 fat, and usually only contains one ingredient: water.
Besides, many alcoholic beverages currently on the market may not contain much of anything, but there is a wide variety of beverages out there containing alcohol. I have noticed an increase in pre-mixed beverages (girlie drinks, especially) now available on the market containing many non-alcoholic ingredients and just a nominal amount of alcohol.
I think it's unfair that adding a drop of alcohol to a bunch of juices, coffee, or cream allows that product to escape the requirement to list ingredients, calories, fat content, sugar content, and other nutritional information. If it's a consumable, it should list this information.-- XSarenkaX, Jul 09 2002 Nutritional information is required for food, because it is eaten for nutritional purposes. If you're concerned about caloric intake, the labelling regulations seem to assume that you'll be using lo-cal drinks which generally do have the data you want.I agree that it's unfair though.-- angel, Jul 09 2002 For alcoholic beverages, the simple analysis of calorific content is a biot meaningless. Yes, you can analyse for simple and complex sugars, but the problem with alcohol is that the liver uses the NAD/NADH cycle to break it down into acetates which then get converted to fats (or rather, fatty acids) and then have to be cracked back to simple sugars before the energy can be accessed by the body (I think this is right. It was explained to me in great detail by a PhD molecular biologist, but as we were both pi55ed at the time it's all a bit blurry). So the point is that just a measure of gross calorific content will give you a distored view of the potential metabolic/katabolic cosequences of alcohol consumption. Not that I have any actual objection to alcohol consumption, mind.
In the civilised world, real beer is brown, and comes in pint pots from wooden barrels, instead of being a fizzy, chemically-processed yellow liquid resembling carbonated cat pee dispensed in poxy little bottles. Where then the nutritonal advice ? Posted by the beer engines, one would imagine .... or engraved on the glass ??-- 8th of 7, Jul 09 2002 // I've always assumed that *all* beer was filtered through a dog, for about three hours. //
No, I'm sure that A-Busch uses horses for filtering. Why else would they have all those Clydesdales?-- BigBrother, Jul 09 2002 UnaBubba: It depends on the brewery. Traditionaly, flavor was imparted to some British beers (e.g. Watneys Red barrel) by straining it through an ancient sweatly arab sock prior to feeding it to the dog.
BigBrother: You are right about Budweiser, but bear in mind that they only use the product if the vet has pronounced in writing that "this horse is not fit to work"
Blissmiss: Just take SCUBA gear. (By the way, imagining you in rubber hip boots, apron and goggles is ...... interesting .... ).
Hooray for CAMRA ! (Sorry of this is advertising).-- 8th of 7, Jul 09 2002 The BATF **FORBIDS** nutritional labeling of alcoholic beverages in the USA. Doesn't make much sense to me, but they do.
On a related note, I'd like to see coffee and soda beverages labelled with caffeine content. I believe they are in some countries, but not the U.S.-- supercat, Jul 09 2002 Really? I didn't know that orange soda had any caffeine in it. Hrm... Caffeine content listings would be helpful, as I only drink the stuff when I'm sleepy and trying to stay awake (I hate coffee), so knowing which soda has the most caffeine would be quite helpful.
As to calories in beer, it would be helpful to list them.
It makes me crazy these people drinking "light" beer. Don't they know it's just weak, watered down, regular beer? Haven't they noticed they drink 2 "light" beers for every 1 regular beer? Calorie wise, I think in the end the "light" beers are more fattening, because you have to drink more of them to get the same effect.-- Aurora, Jul 09 2002 I posted several links relating to the ATF, FDA's nutrition labels, and a listing of some beer info.-- XSarenkaX, Jul 10 2002 *passes his beer over to bliss, since he doesn't drink anyway.
Personally I could never figure out the world's fixation with alcohol. Especially beer. God, the smell...-- RayfordSteele, Jul 11 2002 random, halfbakery