Easy Does It Fitting your favourite drink into a healthy lifestyle.

Approach the festive season with your eyes wide open and you can enjoy a tipple without sabotaging your health, writes Toni Paterson.

Adrink at the end of the day can be a pleasurable part of life. But many wonder how alcohol fits into a healthy lifestyle. Two main factors to consider are the number of drinks one consumes and their calorific impact.

The Australian national guidelines on healthy drinking recommend no more than two standard drinks per day for men and women. A standard drink contains 10g alcohol. With wine, a 100ml serve is roughly one standard drink. A small, 285ml full-strength beer or large, 425ml light beer is equal to one standard drink. A large, full-strength beer can be 1.5 standard drinks or more.

With spirits, one 30ml nip with an alcohol content of 40% v/v equals one standard drink, as does a 60ml pour of fortified wine or 75ml pour of dry sherry. The energy content is mainly due to the alcohol itself. If you watch your drinks, you also watch your kilojoules.

In beer, there is the carbohydrate level to consider, though its impact is much less than advertisers lead you to believe. Unless you choose an ultra low-carb beer, there isn’t a lot of difference between the calorie content of most. A small 285ml beer is about 100–120 cal/420–480kj – the same range for wine. An ultra low-carb, low-alcohol beer is around 70 cal/300kj for 285ml.

Most bottled wine is dry, meaning it has no residual sugar and isn’t sweet. Even if there is a little sugar in your sauvignon blanc or rosé, it doesn’t have a big impact on the energy content. Wines with higher sugar levels, such as off-dry rieslings, often have correspondingly lower alcohol so still fall within the 100–120 cal/420–480kj range. With dessert and fortified wines, the sugar does add extra energy but is offset by the smaller volume, again sitting in the same calorific range. #

Recommended 2017 TYRRELL’S HUNTER VALLEY SEMILLON, $25 A youthful wine with a lemony freshness and only 11% alcohol. Sourced from Tyrrell’s HVD vineyard, it has pedigree, grace and style. 2016 KERRIGAN + BERRY RIESLING, $30 Youthful and expressive, with delicacy and finesse. Lemongrass and ripe citrus flavours, a mid-palate softness, integrated acidity and a moderate alcohol content of 12% are all reasons to try. 2016 HESKETH SMALL PARCELS BONVEDRO, $25

Engaging aromas of glacé cherries precede a light body and soft tannins. Has a powerful flavour yet moderate alcohol level of 12%. 2016 CUMULUS CHARDONNAY, $35 A modern showing with aromas of green apple, lemon and oatmeal plus hints of honeysuckle and oak, with a middling 12.5% alcohol.