Calories in beer? Estimates way off!

Calories in beer are a fact of life and research shows that people tend to overestimate how many calories are in beer. This might be good news to dieters everywhere!

This comes in this month’s “Real Beer Pages” news letter.  If my memory serves me correctly, this was the first Internet mailing list I joined, (back in 1994). It’s great, I suggest you sign up for it if you like beer news like this.

Research funded by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has found that a significant majority of people in Britain believe there are more calories in beer than there really are. The survey found that 19% correctly estimated the calorie content of beer – fewer than for wine, where a quarter get it right.

However when questioned, women are significantly more likely to overestimate the calorie content of drinks (wine, beer, orange juice). The gap in understanding between the sexes is then most noticeable when it comes to beer, with a surprising 74% of women overestimating its calorie content compared with 60% of men.

The BBPA press release pointed out that a half pint (284ml) of 4% ABV beer contains about 96 calories, while a 175ml glass of 12.5% red wine has 119 calories.