CHRISTMAS, CHEERS!

It’s party season and the drinks are flowing – but it’s easy to overdo it. Here’s a guide to sensible tippling

Compiled by SHANAAZ PRINCE

IT’S New Year’s Eve and you have a problem: you’re trying to squeeze into your favourite skinny jeans and discover you can’t do up the zip. You hold your breath and tug but it just won’t budge. Oh no! Was it the mince pies? Or the delicious roast potatoes you tucked into with your Christmas lunch? Or was it the two helpings of trifle you allowed yourself?

All these things may have played their part – but it’s more likely the drinks you washed them down with that really sank you.

Most of us wouldn’t dream of eating 13 slices of white bread in one sitting – yet we sometimes easily consume the equivalent of this when we’re with friends and the booze starts flowing. This is because alcohol is loaded with carbs and sugar and the tonic water, orange juice or cola we sometimes add to make our favourite drink turns it into even more of a kilojoule bomb.

But that doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself. Consumed in moderation alcohol isn’t bad – in fact it even has some health benefits. It’s all down to how you drink it and what you combine it with.

Vodka, tequila and whisky are far less fattening choices than cocktails, beer and wine, health blogger and nutrition coach Cara-Lisa Sham says.

Instead of buying sugary mixers to add to your alcoholic drinks, rather make your own, using fruit-infused water or soda water, she suggests. “You can even use homemade iced herbal tea as a mixer.”

From spirits to bubbly and beer, here’s everything you need to know about your favourite tipple – and how you can drink it cleverly so you can still fit into your jeans in January.