LiveLighter investigates: alcohol-free alcohol

by Gael Myers, Accredited Practising Dietitian

December 24, 2019
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Close up of a section of bitumen road. ALCOHOL FREE ZONE is written in capital letters on the road. Icons of a wine glass and wine bottle appear in a white circle. A red outline appears around the circle and a red line crosses over the circle to indicate that these are not allowed.

With the popularity of non-alcoholic alcohol drinks on the rise these drinks are moving from the fringe to being a viable option when you're staying away from drinking. One brand has even positioned itself not just as an alcohol alternative, but as a healthy alternative to soft drink. However, there’s very little information out there about how many kilojoules these drinks contain.

To find out more we scoured 26 bottle shops and supermarkets in the Perth metro area looking for non-alcoholic versions of beer, wine, cider and spirits. To assess the energy content of these drinks, we compared the number of kilojoules in a bottle or glass against their alcoholic versions. An alcoholic beer has around 510kJ per 330mL bottle while a 150mL glass of regular wine contains around 460kJ. We also compared the kilojoules against regular soft drink - with a 300mL bottle of cola containing around 540kJ.

Here’s what we found

Non-alcoholic beer

There were 15 different non-alcoholic beers included in our sample. These had an average of 313kJ per bottle, which is more than half the kilojoules of a full-strength beer (and around half the kilojoules of a soft drink). The lowest kilojoule non-alcoholic beer had just 92kJ a bottle while the highest kilojoule option contained 389kJ – quite a range!

Non-alcoholic wine

We were surprised to see the large range of non-alcoholic wines available – 29 in total. The non-alcoholic wines contained an average of 183kJ per glass, which is less than half the kilojoules in regular wine.

Other alcohol alternatives

Only one non-alcoholic cider and one brand of non-alcoholic spirits were found in our search.

The non-alcoholic cider contained more kilojoules than a soft drink – so not a great choice!

The non-alcoholic spirits were kilojoule-free (basically water with herbs and spices) but it’s important to consider what you would serve them with. With only slightly less kilojoules than a cola, tonic water packs a surprisingly sugary punch so watch out if this is your mixer of choice!

Lowest kilojoule options

		Kilojoules per 100mL	Kilojoules per serve
Non-alcoholic beer	Brew dog alcohol-free hoppy ale (355mL)	26	92
	Holsten alcohol-free beer (330mL)	50	165
	Weihenstephaner alcohol-free original Helles (500mL)	58	290
Non-alcoholic wine	Miranda non-alcoholic Sauvignon Blanc	48	72
	Miranda non-alcoholic Shiraz	66	99
	Vintense non-alcoholic Merlot	72	108
	Edenvale non-alcoholic Rosé	75	113
	Vintense non-alcoholic chardonnary	76	114
Other	Seedlip non-alcoholic spirit	0	0

Highest kilojoule options

		Kilojoules per 100mL	Kilojoules per serve
Non-alcoholic beer	Carlton Zero (330mL)	118	389
	Krombacher non-alcoholic pils (330mL)	111	366
	Clausthaler low alcohol lager (330mL)	108	356
Non-alcoholic wine	Maggie Beer non-alcoholic sparkling chardonnay	265	398
	Fronti non-alcoholic sparkling white	245	368
	Lindeman’s Maiden Press lightly sparkling Shiraz	227	341
	Fronti non-alcoholic sparkling red	225	338
Other	The Hills cider company virgin apple cider (330mL)	224	739

So what’s the benefit in drinking less alcohol?

There’s no getting around it – alcohol is a cause of seven types of cancer.

The more you drink and the more often you drink the greater your risk.

Switching to non-alcoholic alcohol drinks is a great way to reduce your intake of alcohol and therefore your risk of developing these cancers.

BUT… it’s important to realise that carrying too much weight can also put you at risk of cancer. It’s easy to over-consume drinks as they don’t fill you up in the same way that food does, meaning that we can easily drink a lot of kilojoules without realising it.

When choosing a non-alcoholic beer or wine make sure you take a look at the nutrition label to see how many kilojoules are hiding there. We’d suggest choosing non-alcoholic beers with less than 70kJ per 100mL, and non-alcoholic wines with less than 90kJ per 100mL.