Nutrition facts on alcohol?

[Callie]

A lot of people drink, we all know this. Each person has their own reason for drinking. Some do it to get away from reality, some do it for recreation.

However, why is there no nutrition labels on the majority of alcohol? There's no mention of the calories each has (yes, I know some do, but the majority of hard liquor does not). There's no mention of what is IN alcohol, either.

I'm very conscientious about my caloric intake. I've never really kept that a secret. Part of the reason I rarely drink is because of the calories that alcohol has. Most people don't consider the calories that are in alcohol when they drink. Most people don't even read nutrition labels, don't look at ingredients that are in foods and beverages. I do. EVERYTHING consumable has a label on it, even WATER has a nutrition label...so why not alcohol? When I want to drink, I have to go online and search out the information. You might think this is simple, but it's not. There are many websites that have contradicting information on the actual amount of calories and who's to say they are even accurate to begin with.

In times when nutrition is so important, in times when alcohol consumption is so high, why are there no labels letting people know what they are actually putting into their bodies?

Here is an article on the lack of nutrition labeling on alcohol if you wish to read more about it.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/05/FD2D1G4OB8.DTL

 

[Barbaloot]

Sometimes I miss drinking.

 

[TheSolitaryMan]

That's a very good point, in fact it baffles me too.

I noted the other day that a beer I was consuming simply was labelled as containing "hops, water, barley" with no detailed information at all. Presumably other additives must be contributed at some point to make beers different to one another.

Since the obvious component of alcohol is ethanol, I was also surprised not to see this explicitly stated too (beyond "alcohol percentage" anyway).

It struck me that perhaps alcohol labelling legislation is rather archaic through some loophole in the law. I wonder if it's something to do with a recipe law or something, designed to prevent other brands from copying a production process?

 

[Callie]

That's a very good point, in fact it baffles me too.

I noted the other day that a beer I was consuming simply was labelled as containing "hops, water, barley" with no detailed information at all. Presumably other additives must be contributed at some point to make beers different to one another.

Since the obvious component of alcohol is ethanol, I was also surprised not to see this explicitly stated too (beyond "alcohol percentage" anyway).

It struck me that perhaps alcohol labelling legislation is rather archaic through some loophole in the law. I wonder if it's something to do with a recipe law or something, designed to prevent other brands from copying a production process?

Yes, but...how would that be any different from food or soda?

 

[TheSolitaryMan]

Yes, but...how would that be any different from food or soda?

Presumably because from reading the nutritional content of a food you can work out what it's made of, but not neccessarily how it's made.

Beers are pretty much all the same in principle, differed from one another only by alcohol content, hop type and the various chemical processes applied to them.

I expect a skilled brewer could determine how a particular taste was achieved from the calorific content of the final mixture (burn ethanol, find cal content with calorimeter, compare with hops composition cal content, figure out ratios/fermentation time from that, etc.)

Not that I'm saying that it should be so vague of course, just that's my probable take on why it is. In all likelihood it's less complicated and it's just crappy outdated laws

 

[Felix]

Because it's not convenient for the companies who want to sell the product.

My guess is they lobby to not get 'labeled'

 

[Callie]

Yes, but...how would that be any different from food or soda?

Presumably because from reading the nutritional content of a food you can work out what it's made of, but not neccessarily how it's made.

Beers are pretty much all the same in principle, differed from one another only by alcohol content, hop type and the various chemical processes applied to them.

I expect a skilled brewer could determine how a particular taste was achieved from the calorific content of the final mixture (burn ethanol, find cal content with calorimeter, compare with hops composition cal content, figure out ratios/fermentation time from that, etc.)

Not that I'm saying that it should be so vague of course, just that's my probable take on why it is. In all likelihood it's less complicated and it's just crappy outdated laws

Well, I agree with you there for the most part. But other beverages aren't all that much different from alcohol. The process may be easier (I don't know how this stuff is really made), but the soda market is probably just as cunning as the liquor department.