You may have noticed calorie labels appearing next to food options on many menus or have heard about them in the news. However, have you noticed that alcohol drinks are missing these labels?
The introduction of calorie labelling on menus has been the subject of much debate, but alcoholic drinks remain exempt from this legislation.
Researchers from the Behaviour Science and Health Department at UCL conducted a survey with over 4,000 people across the UK to explore what people think of alcohol calorie labelling, and the potential impacts of this labelling on health.
Overall, 46% of alcohol consumers said they would make changes to their drinking behaviour if calorie labels for alcohol were introduced.
Why calorie labelling might be important
While counting calories can be unhelpful and problematic (as it can lead to unhealthy eating habits), being aware of the proportion of our calorie intake that comes from certain food groups or drinks can be beneficial to striking a balance with our dietary and drinking behaviours. About 9% of calories consumed by men and 5% by women come from alcoholic drinks. Alcohol calorie labelling could therefore contribute to helping people maintain this balance.
The study
We added questions on alcohol calorie labelling to a survey within the Alcohol Toolkit Study, a study that has collected monthly data since 2014 to monitor and understand influences on alcohol use. 4,683 adults in England completed the survey between November 2021 and January 2022.
Attitudes towards calorie labelling on alcohol were assessed, as was knowledge of the calorie content of four common beverages: a pint of beer (568mL, 4% strength), a medium glass of white wine (175mL, 13% strength), a pint of cider, (568mL, 4.5% strength) and a single measure of gin or vodka (25mL, 40% strength).
We evaluated hypothetical changes in behaviour if alcohol calorie labelling was introduced by asking the question: ‘If calorie information was provided on alcoholic drinks, which of the following would you do?’, and providing a series of changes people might make, for example choosing lower-calorie drinks or having a lower number of drinks on a given drinking occasion.
The findings
Our population
The study sample consisted of 2,264 men and 2,419 women (with an average age of 51). The majority of our sample (73%) were alcohol drinkers, of whom 2,736 (77.6%) were classified as ‘low risk’ and 792 (22.4%) as ‘hazardous’ drinkers (according to the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) questionnaire).
Do people already know the calorie content of alcoholic beverages?
Knowledge of the calorie content of alcoholic beverages was limited, with overestimation being common. Overall, the greatest accuracy was for spirits (52.0% correct), followed by white wine (41.8%), cider (34.0%) and beer (28.4%).
‘Hazardous’ drinkers were more likely to accurately estimate the calorie content of wine, cider and spirits than non-drinkers, after adjusting for age, gender, ethnicity, social class, and education.
What people think about calorie labels on alcohol
Attitudes to alcohol calorie labelling were generally positive, with 57.9% indicating that it would be useful, 63.6% agreeing that it should be provided in shops and supermarkets, and 51.7% that it should be available in hospitality venues (pubs, bars, and restaurants).
Although there were no significant differences in the proportion of non-drinkers, ‘low-risk’, and ‘hazardous’ drinkers who agreed labelling would be useful, attitudes to providing labelling in shops and supermarkets and in hospitality venues were lower among alcohol drinkers. Both ‘low-risk’ (62% and 49%) and ‘hazardous’ drinkers (61% and 46%) were less likely than non-drinkers (69% and 62%) to agree that labelling should be provided at shops and supermarkets or hospitality venues.
What people might do
Overall, 46.4% of alcohol consumers indicated that they would change their drinking habits if calorie labelling was introduced.
This response was more common among women than men, younger drinkers, ethnic minority respondents, and responders with higher educational attainment.
This response was also more common among ‘hazardous’ than ‘low-risk’ drinkers. Compared to ‘low-risk’ drinkers, ‘hazardous’ drinkers were more likely to state that they would drink fewer alcoholic beverages, drink less often, and choose lower calorie drinks, if calorie labelling were introduced.
Future considerations
While these results are encouraging, it is important to note that calorie labels are no silver bullet. It is unlikely that alcohol calorie labelling in isolation would contribute substantially to the UK Government’s strategy to reduce harms from alcohol and obesity. Calorie labelling might have a positive role, but only within a more comprehensive approach, including regulation on advertising, availability, taxation and price.
Our research covered calorie content of beer, cider, wine and spirits. However, we do not know knowledge around calories in mixed cocktails, which continue to rise in popularity and diversity. Given some cocktails are likely to contain many more calories than others (a cream-based ‘White Russian’ versus a vodka-based ‘Manhattan’), calorie labels could be helpful in improving knowledge.
However, we must be aware of potential unintended consequence. Previous research with a largely undergraduate student sample highlighted that some might use calorie labelling information to reduce food consumption prior to a drinking episode, potentially contributing to unhealthy eating habits in this group. Unintended consequences of calorie labelling must be thoroughly investigated and considered with different groups of individuals (e.g., students) prior to implementation.
Finally, recent media coverage of our work has highlighted an ongoing bias towards individuals living with overweight. From an image of a person with a larger body holding a pint aloft (The Daily Mirror) to a stomach-view of an individual with a larger stomach having their waist measured (UCL), the imagery around this work was linked to the impacts on weight first and foremost. Not only are there a wide range of health harms from alcohol, the associations made in the media around heavy drinking and having overweight propagate overweight stigma, creating an unhelpful – and potentially damaging – narrative.
Alcohol calorie labelling, and any other interventions to reduce harms from alcohol and obesity, should focus on positively impacting both health and wellbeing, to support individuals to live healthier, happier lives.
Written by Dr Florence Sheen, Vice Chancellor Independent Research Fellow, Loughborough University.
All IAS Blogposts are published with the permission of the author. The views expressed are solely the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute of Alcohol Studies.