assistance needing with tracking alchoholic beverages in diary Topic

U6116447 11/11/14
Can someone please explain how to properly enter data about an alcoholic beverage into the diary? Should I be including the ABV (alcohol by volume) percentage somewhere in my nutrients list? I've been including calories and carbs, but can't figure out how to include the actual alcohol component. I reviewed some entries for beer and I see an amount listed under "Alcohol, g" (for a Bud light it shows 11 g) - but I can't figure out what this corresponds to - not the total volume of the beverage (which is 12 oz) and not the ABV (which is probably around 4%). I'd like to have a beer or glass of wine occasionally but I want to document it properly in my food diary to stay on track

Mobius 11/12/14 replied to U6116447
12oz of bud over there in the States is about 350ml of liquid which will weigh about 350g without the glass bottle. If 4% of this liquid is alcohol then this would be around 350*0.04 = 14g of alcohol. It is a bit more complex than that because alcohol is lighter than the water in the beer but that is reasonably close to you 11g figure.

Dietitian 11/14/14
To enter alcohol or water gram values in customized foods/beverages, or to track alcohol or water, you need a Max membership. Food labeling for alcohol is not covered under the regular FDA food label laws, it is covered by the TTB in the U.S.: http://www.ttb.gov/labeling/

This is a pain - it would be nice to know calories, alcohol grams, water grams, etc for alcoholic beverages.

FYI, this ABV to grams calculator works pretty well: http://www.cleavebooks.co.uk/scol/ccalcoh4.htm

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, CDE

Susato 08/30/20
I hear you - most of the beers listed in the app don't show alcohol grams, only calories. So I approximate calories and alcohol grams based on the "Beer regular 5% ABV" entry. For non-sweet beers up to about 9% ABV (like IPAs, my fave) I find the ratio of the beer's ABV to 5% ABV and multiply that by the ounces consumed.
For example: I drink 12 ounces of a 7% ABV beer and count it as
(12 oz)(7%/5%) = (12 oz)(1.4) = 16.8 oz and I log the drink as 16.8 oz of 5% ABV beer. The alcohol grams are nearly exactly correct and the calories are approximately correct. I don't log fluid intake so the discrepancy there doesn't bother me.

I consider this model valid for alcohol & calories estimates because brewers must use about 40% more grain per barrel to make a 7% ABV beer than a 5% ABV beer. 40% more grain means 40% more food value thus 40% more calories. However, if you drink a beer containing enough lactose and/or fruit purée to make it taste sweet (e.g. pastry stouts, smoothie style beers) the true calorie count can be significantly larger than this estimate.

assistance needing with tracking alchoholic beverages in diary