Experts warn of hidden health risks of alcohol-free beverages
Many people who don't want to spend Sunday with a hangover choose alcohol-free beverages as they believe them to be the healthier choice.
Many of us like to frequent a beer garden when the sun is in the sky and have a good old catch up with friends and family we haven't seen in a while. While some of us might choose to have a cheeky cocktail or pint in the warm weather, others choose to go with an alcohol-free alternative.
While these drinks won't cause you to have a hangover the next day, many people choose to buy the beverage as they believe it to be the healthier choice. However, this may not be entirely true, especially if they are consumed without moderation.
While sales of the booze-free alternatives are soaring, health experts are worried that many people are unaware of the harm these drinks can cause to our health.
New research has uncovered that regularly drinking alcohol-free beer, especially those that are wheat-based or the 'mixed' varieties that are flavoured with fruit soda, could actually cause a significant increase to the risk of developing heart problems and type 2 diabetes, reports the Mirror.
UK pubs in 2023 alone sold 120million pints of booze-free beer, which was a 14 per cent hike from the year before. In comparison to sales in 2019, this is a staggering 77.8 per cent increase.
Scientists are wary of the alcohol-free beverages as, if drunk regularly, the sugar and calorie content can be damaging to your health.
In a recent study, 44 healthy men were asked to consume either two bottles or water or alcohol-free beer each day for four weeks. Each of the men received blood tests throughout the trial to track any changes in their metabolic health.
The results showed that those who drank the booze-free beer showed an increase in the levels of insulin in their blood, which can be linked to type 2 diabetes. Blood sugar levels were also seen to rise, as well as levels of triglycerides, which is a type of fat associated with cardiovascular disease.
According to the group of international researchers - from the University of California, San Diego, Germany's Knappschaft Kliniken and the University of the Basque Country - the negative effects were seen to be largely driven by excess sugar and calories in some alcohol-beer beers.
Reported in the Nutrients journal, the team said: "Non-alcoholic beers are gaining popularity as alternatives to alcoholic beverages, yet their metabolic and health effects compared to no consumption of these drinks remain unclear."
The problem seems to come from the way that alcohol-free drinks are made. As removing the alcohol can take away the flavour, brewers will often add sugar and flavourings to improve the taste. However, in some cases these can contain more sugar than their boozy alternative.
For example, a 330ml bottle of Erdinger Alkoholfrei contains nearly 12g of sugar, which is more than seven times the 1.65g in the brand's standard Weissbier.
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Drinkaware is advising consumers to check the labels of their drinks carefully. They said: "It's important to understand the calories in any drink don't just come from alcohol, so you only 'save' calories if the substitute drink is a 'low-calorie' one."
However, Dr Richard Piper, chief executive of Alcohol Change, had stressed that not all of the booze-free drinks on the market are as bad, with many low-alcohol beers and wines containing less sugar than soft drinks.
Speaking to The Times, he said: "The latest study compared the metabolic effects of low/no beers with water, but orange juice typically contains 13.8g and cola about 11g of sugar per 100ml, more than many no-alcohol beverages.
"If you choose wisely you can have a low-alcohol drink with 135 times less sugar than the same volume of fruit juice."
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