The 10 Best Low Carb Alcoholic Drinks

What have you given up for your low carb lifestyle? Celebrating with a few drinks is great (even if it's just celebrating the end of the week), but it's easy to feel guilty about it when you're following a low carb lifestyle. Well you'll be very pleased to know that there are options for when you want to have a few but don't want to compromise on your carb intake. Have a read of the list below.

Low Carb Beers

Carb values per bottle - 355mL

1) Bighead - 0.0 g

This craft brew has ZERO carbs. That's right - absolutely none. I don't know how they do it – I can only assume it's magic. It has a light, fresh and refreshing taste.

2) Summer Bright Lager - 2.7g

A great light beer for summer (as the name suggests). Best enjoyed whilst chilling by the pool on a nice hot day. If you generally don't like beer, give this one a try as it has a nice mild flavour.

3) Hahn Super Dry - 2.2g

One of the very first lower-carb beers to hit the market. It's got a stronger 'beer' taste than the others but is still quite mild compared to some regular draught beers.

4) Hahn Ultra Crisp - 4.5 g

Hahn Ultra Crisp is a well-crafted lower carb option. It’s also 99% sugar free, preservative free & gluten free to boot.

5) Tooheys TED - 5.2 g

Tooheys Extra Dry Beer is well known for its clean, refreshing taste. The crisp, dry finish is achieved by an extended fermentation, ensuring minimal residual fermentable sugars. Wonderful fruity, malty notes accompany a mellow middle palate, leaving a clean aftertaste.

6) Natural Blonde - 5.3 g

This one is found in Aldi.

	Hungry? What better to enjoy your low carb beer with than a low carb pizza! Our Protein Pizza Base mix has just 6g of carbs and a whopping 50g of protein in the whole base! Now that's a winning combo.

Low Carb Wine?

Wines are a bit harder to give advice on, as there no labelling laws requiring nutrition information to be on the packaging, unless a health claim is made. This makes it hard for us to help you! But we do have a couple for you: 1) Lindemans Early Harvest Sauvignon Blanc - 0.7 g 2) >McWilliams Sauvignon Blanc - 7.5 g If you have any other specific recommendations, let us know! Otherwise, below is a more general look at the carb content that each variety of wine will likely have:

Low Carb White and Sparkling Wines

• Chardonnay: 3.7 carbs
• Pinot Gris/Grigio: 3.2 carbs
• Riesling: 5.5 carbs
• Champagne/Sparking whites: 1.5 carbs

Low Carb Red Wines

• Merlot: 3.7 carbs
• Pinot Noir: 3.4 carbs
• Cabernet: 3.8 carbs

*These values are taken from this website. Side Note: when you drink, the alcohol travels to your stomach where most of it will then be sent to the liver to be metabolised (the rest is absorbed into the blood steam and travels to the rest of your body). It's metabolised in your liver by the same enzyme that breaks down glucose - so while your body is metabolising alcohol, glucose metabolism is temporarily stopped. Given this, alcohol can cause issues with those who have trouble with their blood sugar levels, as the body stops reacting to changes in blood sugar levels and just tries to process the alcohol.

Low Carb Cocktails

I always love a good cocktail, but mixers are hard to choose when following a low carb lifestyle as many mixers are either soft drinks or juices. In most spirits, there is virtually no carbs per shot at all, but they do still average around 250 calories per shot. But, unless you make it at home there probably isn't much chance of getting a low carb cocktail because of all the tasty mixers they add. But, I do have a few classic cocktail recipes for you which are low carb:

Anna's Favourite!

And then there's Anna's favourite - Cornelius Krump and gin! A seriously refreshing drink, absolutely perfect for Summer - with only 5.9g carbs! It makes great cocktails like the one on the right - if you haven't tried it you need to get your hands on some!

• 45mL of your preferred Gin
• 150mL Cornelius Krump Cucumber Seltzer
• 15mL lemon juice
• Dash of freshly squeezed lime juice
• Cucumber to garnish

Place ice into a highball glass. Add gin, then fresh squeezed lime and lemon juice, and then your sliced cucumber. Then poor over the Cucumber Seltzer. Enjoy you low carb cocktail!

QUINCY Alcoholic Seltzer!

With a hint of Passionfruit or Lime You can learn more about these here

Or favourite low carb drinks? We'd love to hear about them (so we can try them too!).

Sources http://burleighbrewing.com.au/beers/bighead/ http://www.xxxx.com.au/our-beer/xxxx-summer-bright-lager/ https://www.hahn.com.au/the-beer/about-hahn-superdry/ http://www.coopers.com.au/#/our-beer/ales-stout/original-pale-ale/ http://www.calorieking.com.au/ http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-your-body-processes-alcohol.html