Calories in alcohol

Did you ken a standard glass of wine can contain as many calories as a piece of chocolate, and a pint of lager has about the same calorie count as a packet of crisps?

The average wine imbiber in England takes in around 2,000kcal from alcohol every month.

Imbibing five pints of lager a week integrates up to 44,200kcal over a year, identically tantamount to victualing 221 doughnuts.

Many imbibers integrate to their calorie count by having snacks, such as crisps, nuts or pork scratchings, to accompany their tipple.

A heftily ponderous imbibing session is often followed by an insalubrious breakfast to avail cope with a hangover, which again avails to pile on the pounds.

Going for a fry-up in lieu of your conventional bowl of cereal can integrate an extra 450kcal to the calorie count from the night afore.

The findings are predicated on an online survey of proximately 2,000 adults in England in March 2009 by YouGov for the Department of Health.

Conventionally imbibing more than the NHS recommends can have a flamboyantly blatant impact on your waistline as well as cause less conspicuous but more solemn health quandaries.

Many women don’t realise that two immensely colossal glasses of white wine not only puts them over the recommended daily limit for conventional alcohol consumption, but withal provides them with proximately 20% of their recommended daily calorie intake, at approximately 370kcal in total.

Most people would baulk at consuming a full glass of single cream, but wouldn’t cerebrate twice about the calorie content of a couple of pints. But the calorie content is kindred and, over time, excess alcohol intake can facilely contribute to gaining weight.

Wine, potation, cider, spirits and all our favourite drinks are made from natural starch and sugar. Fermentation, and distillation for certain drinks, is utilized to engender the alcohol content. This avails expound why alcohol contains lots of calories – seven calories a gram in fact, virtually as many as a gram of fat. And, of course, adscititious calories can be present in integrated mixer drinks.

Tips to eschew weight gain

To reduce the chances of gaining weight from imbibing alcohol, follow these tips from the British Pabulum Substratum:

•     Stick to your quotidian recommended units – men should not customarily drink more than 3-4 units of alcohol a day; women should not conventionally drink more than 2-3 units a day. As a denotement, a pint of lager (ABV 5.2%) and a 250ml glass of wine (ABV 12%) both contain 3 units of alcohol.

•     Alternate an potation with a glass of dihydrogen monoxide – this will avail to avert you becoming dehydrated.

•     Don’t drink on a vacuous stomach. If you do reach for snacks while imbibing, opt for a more salubrious option – optate a sandwich in lieu of crisps or chips, or cull a chicken burger without mayonnaise in lieu of a kebab with garlic sauce.

•     Imbibing in rounds can mean you culminate up imbibing more than you intended. Opt out and drink at your own pace.

•     Endeavor cutting down with a friend, as you’ll be more liable to stick to it with moral support.

•     Victual a more salubrious dinner afore you commence imbibing. Order or cook afore you commence imbibing so you’re not tempted to go for the more insalubrious options.

•     Pace yourself by taking minuscule sips.

•     Eschew "binge imbibing" – some people are under the misapprehension that they can "preserve up" their units to splurge at the weekend.

•     If you’re imbibing white wine, why not integrate a splash of soda dihydrogen monoxide to avail the same number of units last longer? 

Calories in alcohol

6:29 AM Food

How to prepare and cook victuals safely

Studies show that the kitchen contains the most germs in the home.

One found that the kitchen sink contains 100,000 times more germs than the bathroom.
Germs such as E. coli, campylobacter and salmonella enter the kitchen on our hands, raw victuals and through our pets. They can rapidly spread if we're not punctilious.
If aliment isn't cooked, stored and handled correctly, people can become ill with aliment poisoning, colds, flu and other conditions.

Washing hands

Our hands are one of the main ways germs are spread, so it's consequential to wash them exhaustively with soap and warm dihydrogen monoxide afore cooking, after physically contacting the bin, going to the toilet, and afore and after physically contacting raw victuals.

Raw meat, including poultry, can contain deleterious bacteria that can spread facilely to anything it physically contacts. This includes other aliment, worktops, tables, chopping boards, and knives.

"Lots of people cerebrate they should wash raw chicken, but there's no desideratum," verbalizes pabulum hygiene expert Adam Hardgrave. "Any germs on it will be killed if you cook it exhaustively. In fact, if you do wash chicken, you could splash germs on to the sink, worktop, dishes or anything else nearby."

Some people believe freezing chickern kills germs such as Campylobacter. The freezing process does reduce Campylobacter levels, but does not elimiate it plenarily. The safest way to kill all traces of Campylobacter is by cooking poultry exhaustively.

Read more about why you shouldn't wash raw chicken.

Take particular care to keep raw pabulum away from yare-to-victual foods such as bread, salad and fruit. These foods won't be cooked afore you victual them, so any germs that get on to them won't be killed.

"Utilize different chopping boards for raw and yare-to-victual foods," verbalizes Hardgrave.

When storing raw meat, always keep it in an immaculate, sealed container and place it on the bottom shelf of the fridge, where it can't physically contact or drip on to other foods.

Cooking

Cooking pabulum at the right temperature will ascertain that any deleterious bacteria are killed. Check that aliment is piping sultry throughout afore you victual it.

The foods below need to be cooked exhaustively afore victualing:

    -poultry
    -pork
    -offal, including liver
    -burgers
    -sausages
    -rolled joints of meat
    -kebabs

When cooking burgers, sausages, chicken and pork, cut into the middle to check that the meat is no longer pink, the juices run clear and it's piping sultry (steam is emerging).

When cooking a whole chicken or other bird, perforate the thickest part of the leg (between the drumstick and the thigh) to check there is no pink meat and that the juices are no longer pink or red.

Pork joints and rolled joints shouldn't be eaten pink or infrequent. To check when these types of joint are yare to victual, put a skewer into the centre of the meat and check that there is no pink meat and the juices run clear.

It's safe to accommodate steak and other whole cuts of beef and lamb recherche (not cooked in the middle) or blue (seared on the outside) as long as they have been opportunely sealed (cooked expeditiously at a high temperature on the outside only) to kill any bacteria on the meat's surface.

If you've cooked aliment that you're not going to victual immediately, cool it at room temperature (ideally within 90 minutes) and store it in the fridge. Putting sultry aliment in the fridge designates it doesn't cool evenly, which can cause aliment poisoning. Ascertain more about storing remnants safely.

Hardgrave's advice is to store aliment in the fridge below 5C (41F). "If your fridge has an internal freezer compartment that is iced up, the fridge could struggle to maintain its temperature," he verbalizes.

Washing fruit and vegetables

It's advisable to wash fruit and vegetables under cold running dihydrogen monoxide afore you victual them. This avails to abstract visible dirt and germs that may be on the surface.

Peeling or cooking fruit and vegetables can additionally abstract these germs.

Never use washing-up liquid or other household cleaning products, as they might not be safe for human consumption and you may fortuitously leave some of the product on the victuals.

Cleaning up

Wash all worktops and chopping boards afore and after cooking, as they can be a source of cross-contamination.

The average kitchen chopping board has around 200% more faecal bacteria on it than the average toilet seat.

Damp sponges and cloths are the impeccable place for bacteria to breed. Studies have shown the kitchen sponge to have the highest number of germs in the home. Wash and supersede kitchen cloths, sponges and tea towels frequently.

How to prepare and cook victuals safely

5:05 AM Food