If you’ve been following us for the past week, you’ll notice we’ve gone big on cocktails :). Cocktails are great because they help you go HAM and creative with your drinking preferences and you can wow your friends and family with your mixology skills. They also come in handy when you want to stay indoors and have a bottle of spirits or wine. Just make sure you’ve stocked up enough ingredients (some fruits we suggested here) and you have the right recipes.
Cocktails can go hard with the calories and you might want to try and keep your cocktails as healthy as possible. Here’s a guide to help you do just that.
1. Use only fresh-squeezed or 100 percent fruit juice to reduce added sugars.
2. Make simple syrup with honey which, though sugary, has some added benefits, like a healthy dose of antioxidants. It also gives you better control of the sugar content.
3. Use whole fruit instead of sugar or flavored syrups. The fruit itself adds fiber, natural sugars, and vitamins.
4. Choose light alcohol over dark alcohol. The dark stuff contains more compounds known as congeners, which can worsen hangovers.
5. Limit yourself to one shot per drink. Multi-alcohol cocktails can pack in serious calories, so it is advisable to keep yours to one shot each.
6. Choose nutritious ingredients. Ginger, coffee, and lemon are big indredients in different cocktail drinks. They’ve each got their own proven health benefits, even though they may not totally counteract the negative affects of alcohol. (Note: Too much alcohol and caffeine can both dehydrate—making hangovers even worse)
7. Choose seltzer water over other carbonated waters to eliminate added sodium and other additives.
Last but not the least is to try and limit the amount of cocktails you drink. This will help reduce the amount of calories you take which is healthier of course.
(info via greatist)