{"id":3803,"date":"2010-08-11T06:44:44","date_gmt":"2010-08-11T04:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=3803"},"modified":"2015-02-23T09:04:09","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T14:04:09","slug":"camras-latest-promotion-is-pretty-weak-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/camras-latest-promotion-is-pretty-weak-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"CAMRA’s Latest Promotion is Pretty Weak Beer"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got a bit of a laugh out of the latest attempt by the\u00a0UK’s “Campaign for Real Ale” (CAMRA) to promote beer-drinking.\u00a0 According to the Campaign (which is making headlines here in the US, too), drinking beer will help you lose weight<\/a>!<\/p>\n

LONDON (AFP) \u2013 Beer is good for you and can save you from having to go jogging, organisers insisted at the Great British Beer Festival this week.<\/p>\n

The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), which is behind the giant annual party, said beer had fewer calories than wine, and switching from the grape to the grain could save as many calories as are burned in a half-hour jog.<\/p>\n

And CAMRA hope the notion might help their push to get more women supping Britain’s national drink.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Mike Benner said: “It is great news to see the myth of the beer belly finally laid to rest. The main message we are putting forward today is that, as a low-alcohol drink, beer can supplement a healthy lifestyle if consumed in a responsible manner.”<\/p>\n

Brewing expert Professor Charlie Bamforth said: “For years beer has been blighted by a reputation for being more fattening than other alcoholic drinks when in reality the exact opposite is true.<\/p>\n

“The major source of calories in any alcoholic drink is the alcohol itself, and because beer is the drinks category with the lowest average alcohol content it is also lowest in calories.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Uh-huh.\u00a0 Of course, it’s not like adding a single, half-hour jog to your weekly schedule will peel off the pounds<\/a>, but if you don’t think about that one too hard, I guess it sounds impressive.<\/p>\n

But should we Americans consider emulating the Brits?\u00a0 Here are\u00a0the numbers CAMRA released:<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Half pint of 3.8% Bitter (284ml)<\/td>\nMedium sized glass of 12% red wine (175ml)<\/td>\nMedium sized glass of 12% white wine (175ml)<\/td>\nBottle of 5% ‘alcopop’ (275ml)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
85 calories<\/td>\n119 calories<\/td>\n131 calories<\/td>\n179 calories<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1.1 ALCOHOLIC UNITS<\/td>\n2.1 ALCOHOLIC UNITS<\/td>\n2.1 ALCOHOLIC UNITS<\/td>\n1.4 ALCOHOLIC UNITS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Waaaaaait a sec… a half pint of 3.8% bitter???<\/p>\n

Ok, a British pint is approx. 20 ounces, so a half = ~10 oz… a little less than\u00a0the standard, US\u00a012 oz.\u00a0bottle of beer.\u00a0 So it’s less, but not too far off from, what a US beer drinker might consume. So far so good…<\/p>\n

But anybody catch that percentage of alcohol (3.8%)? Let’s take a look at some comparable American brewskis…<\/a><\/p>\n

Anheuser Busch Natural Light – 4.2 % alcohol
\nBud Light – 4.2% alcohol
\nBusch Light – 4.1% alcohol
\nCoors Light – 4.15% alcohol
\nIcehouse Light – 4.13% alcohol
\nHamm’s Special Light – 3.9% alcohol
\nKeystone Light – 4.13% alcohol
\nLeinenkugel Light – 4.19% alcohol
\nMichelob Light – 4.3% alcohol
\nMiller Lite – 4.2% alcohol
\nOld Milwaukee Light – 3.8% alcohol<\/p>\n

Getting the picture?\u00a0 What\u00a0CAMRA calls\u00a0“beer” is actually “light beer” here in the US.<\/p>\n

Now CAMRA’s not really being deceptive… British beer is apparently pretty wimpy stuff.<\/p>\n

However, the shocker is that many British lagers are only 2.6 -3.2 (3.2 – 3.9% by volume), and British bitters, porters, and stouts are generally 2.8 – 3.2 (3.5 – 4% by volume) while British premium lagers and British special bitters are 3.2 – 3.9. No wonder Britain is noted for its phenominal consumption of beer; at that strength one can consume a good many “pints” in a social atmosphere without being totally inebriated.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No harm, no foul for CAMRA – the Campaign’s intended audience is British, after all. But the difference hasn’t come up in the US stories I’ve seen so far. Thus,\u00a0Americans picking up on the UK story<\/a> need to be aware that the\u00a0“beer”\u00a0on this side of the Atlantic\u00a0is somewhat stiffer stuff – 4.5% – 5% is more the norm (and certain “ice” brews and malt liquors are higher still). In addition, the carb content of American beer is higher than that of UK brews… overall the cals in your typical 12 oz. beer range from about 130 – 170… not at all less (and rather more)\u00a0than a standard, 5 oz.\u00a0serving of vin ordinaire.<\/p>\n

As such, you won’t be catching me swapping my Merlot or Cabernet for a brewski anytime soon – let alone a “lite” beer. But it’s\u00a0not just because of the calories… personally, I agree with the assessment expressed at about\u00a00:58 – 1:11\u00a0below:<\/p>\n

[youtube:http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=m_WRFJwGsbY]<\/p>\n

In truth, modest<\/span> alcohol consumption – whether from beer or wine –\u00a0isn’t likely to impede your weight loss efforts.\u00a0 But even if you’re in the UK, there’s little benefit to swapping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got a bit of a laugh out of the latest attempt by the\u00a0UK’s “Campaign for Real Ale” (CAMRA) to promote beer-drinking.\u00a0 According to the Campaign (which is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,28,29],"tags":[98,199,1867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3803"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9980,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3803\/revisions\/9980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}