Health > Diet & Nutrition

Healthy cocktails

Georgia Cassimatis
Friday, January 1, 2010
Healthy cocktails

Yep, you can drink alcohol and still be healthy! Hollywood nutritionist Philip Goglia tells us how he advises his celeb clients to drink the "healthy" way.

  • The key is to stick to a single ingredient alcohol and stay away from fermented drinks.

  • Vodka is made from potato rye or grain. It's been distilled not fermented, so in the distillation process many of the sugars are removed. Because of the one ingredient, the alcohol breaks down rapidly in your system, versus a fermented alcohol like a beer or wine where it takes longer to break down.

  • The two primary ingredients in fermented drinks are yeast and sugar while wine has mould as well. Don't despair though. If you are a merlot drinker the rule is three glasses of water for every glass of wine. This "manages" the yeast and the sugar.

  • But stay away from rum; it is high in sugar and not distilled.

VIEW GALLERY: Best and worst drinks for health

Healthy cocktail recipe: "Vitatini"

  • Mix Kettle, Belvedere or Grey Goose vodka with your favourite flavour of Vitamin Water.
  • If you want a bit of fizz add a diet soda and squeeze some fresh lemon into it.

    • But if you can't stay away from the "dirty" martinis, that's okay. Just order any of the top shelf vodkas listed — the olives will be good for you as they contain essential fatty acids.

    Health & Wellbeing loves: POM cocktail

    Ingredients

    • 60 ml POMx Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea
    • 45 ml vodka
    • 60 ml tonic
    • 60 ml fresh orange juice
    • Mint leaves

    Preparation

    1. Muddle the mint leaves in the bottom of a highball glass with half of the POMx Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea.
    2. Add ice and the remaining ingredients.
    3. Stir and garnish with the mint sprig.

    What's your favourite "healthy" cocktail?

    User comments
    What a load of rubbish from Philip Goglia. All alcoholic drinks are fermented from a base containing water and sugar in one form or another - fruits, grains, vegetables etc. The resultant alcoholic "wash" is then distilled to extract the alcohol giving a clear neutral spirit of about 97% alcohol by volume (ABV). This is then diluted with water and flavoured as required to give an alcoholic drink of about 37% ABV. Rum is fermented from water and black strap molasses (a by product of sugar cane refining) and then distilled once to produce a drink containing about 55% ABV
    Both Vodka and Rum are fermented first to turn the sugars into alcohol and then distilled.
    Um, all alcohol is "fermented"! This the process whereby yeast is added to a sugary solution, which converts the sugars into alcohol. The difference is whether that alcoholic liquid is then "distilled" or not. Beer and wine are not distilled. Brandy is distilled from a certain kind of wine, whisky is distilled from a kind of beer called "wash". Rum is distilled from a sugary liquid made from a sugar byproduct, normally molasses. Generally, the higher the alcohol content the less the residual carbs unless you add them in eg a cocktail. Spirits have pretty much no sugar as it's been filtered out in the distillation process. A dry red wine will have less sugar than say a sweet white wine. But the key point is that 1 gram of alcohol yields 29 kj whereas 1 gram of sugar yields only 16 kj. But 100 grams of alcohol consumed in many beers is way more fattening than the same 100 grams of alcohol consumed in a few nips of whisky, because of all the extra carbs in beer.
    Who wrote this? I would have assumed that even a journalist (insult intended) would have bothered doing their research before throwing out an article for all to see. Rum isn't distilled? Vodka isn't fermented? It seems Philip Goglia (who the hell is Philip Goglia?) hasn't even bothered to have an understanding of what is apparently his industry. Like so many others he has spoken without knowledge and tried to cover it with image. ***.
    Whoever wrote this needs to go back to school. Facts- 1. ALL alcohol is produced by the metabolism of sugars by yeast. This is called fermentation. 2. Vodka is made from distilling (ie. purifying) fermented grain or other sources of starch. It's the fermentation process that converts the sugars, not the distillation process. 3. The source of ingredients is immaterial in alcohol metabilism in our bodies. It's the amount we have drunk over what timespan. Nothing will alter the speed of metabolism of alcohol if you've overindulged. 4. Wine does NOT have "mould" in it. The higher alcohol content kills-off any bacteria. 5. Rum is distilled from fermented molasses, so it has no sugars in it at all. The ONLY fact in this woefully-written & innaccurate article is that drinking water will help your body flush-out excess alcohol in your system & stave-off the dehydrating effects of overindulgence.
    Great! More encouragement for my alcoholic son to drink more. Just what I need. Where's the encouragement to moderate drinking? Of course - Australia Day is all about breeding up the next generation of alcoholics and binge drinkers.


    Adele and Simon Konecki at the GrammysAdele sheds over 6 kilos in one month by going veggo Eating fatty foods 'sprouts' brain cells Road test: Detox program Quick tips to help control your appetite
    advertisement

    Ask our experts

    EXPERTS CORNER

    Why don't I lubricate naturally? Our answer SEX EXPERT Desiree Spierings What is the best way stop sugars cravings?Our answer DIET AND NUTRITION EXPERT Lisa Guy

    What's your BMI?

    TOOLS

    Body Mass Index (BMI)The BMI is an indirect measure of body composition, based on your height and weight. Find out yours. MEASURE YOUR BMI Burn BarometerHow many kilojoules do you burn? Calorie CounterHow many do you consume? Energy EstimatorJust how much food should you be eating just to make you through each day? Due Date CalculatorFind out when your baby is due.