CNN’s article on drinking facts is eye-opening and informative, but I doubt this information will make much of a difference in any of our drinking habits. Regardless, it’s interesting. Let’s take a look.

The article starts out by saying that drinking the right stuff in moderation can actually be beneficial. For example, a little red wine can be good for your heart and beer is high in antioxidants.

On the flipside, there are some negatives. To start, it’s pretty obvious that most people drink more than they think. A United Kingdom study suggests that the average British guy drinks about 3,740 calories of beer over the holiday season (I’m assuming the Christmastime season), and 27 percent of young adults who are 18 to 24 years old drink so much alcohol in that time that it would take over seven hours of jogging to work off all the calories. Yikes.

It’s also widely known that beer has more carbs, calories and all that other bad stuff. If you’re trying to be health-wise and pay attention to your numbers, beer isn’t the best option. Each heavy beer has about 150 calories or less and about 10 to 20 grams of carbs, depending on the strength, sweetness, stoutness, lager-ness or whatever else.

A glass of red wine has about 2 grams of carbs, and keep in mind that, the drier the wine, the less carbs and less sugar it has.

Hard liquor usually has little to no sugar and carbs, but it all falls on what you mix with it. Drinking vodka on the rocks is way different than mixing it with super-sugary cranberry juice.

There are other facts featured in the article, like how alcohol helps you get to sleep now, but you won’t wake as rested, and it also tells of how drinking in moderation could prevent strokes and might improve your cognitive abilities in the long run.

Long story short: alcohol has its positive and negatives, just like most everything else in our lives.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/16/health/feat-bad-is-booze/index.html