Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Ella Pickover, PA & Nick Wood

Adults can exceed daily sugar limit 'with two glasses of wine'

Adults can exceed their recommended daily limit of sugar by drinking just two glasses of wine, experts have warned.

Drinks can also be packed with calories and in some cases two glasses of wine can contain more calories than a hamburger.

The Alcohol Health Alliance UK (AHA) said that product labelling on alcoholic drinks was “woefully inadequate” as it published new analysis on popular wines.

It looked at the calorie and sugar content of 30 bottles of red, white, rose, fruit and sparkling wine sold in the UK.

The alliance, which represents more than 60 health organisations, said that there is a wide variation of sugar and calories across different wines but they said that with this information missing from most labels consumers are “being kept in the dark” about what they are drinking.

It said that Government guidelines recommend that adults should consume no more than 30g of so-called free sugars per day but it is possible to reach almost this entire amount by drinking two medium glasses of wine.

The AHA analysis suggested that many of the most sugar-packed wines were the ones which had the lowest strength of alcohol.

It said that with no legal requirement to display sugar content on alcohol labels, drinkers may opt for a lower-strength alcohol thinking that this is a healthier option but could unwittingly be upping their daily sugar intake.

The analysis also examined the calories in wine.

The AHA said that just two medium-sized glasses of the most calorific wines analysed contain more calories than a McDonald’s hamburger.

Wines with high calorie content also tended to be higher strength drinks.

The AHA said that none of the 30 products examined in the study displayed sugar content on their labels - information which is required for all non-alcoholic drinks.

Calorie content was only displayed on 20% of the labels examined.

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK, said: “Alcohol’s current exemption from food and drink labelling rules is absurd.

“Shoppers who buy milk or orange juice have sugar content and nutritional information right at their fingertips.

“But this information is not required when it comes to alcohol - a product not just fuelling obesity but with widespread health harms and linked to seven types of cancer."

Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: "Alcohol labelling is woefully inadequate in this country and allows the alcohol industry to decide what information it will and won’t include on its products, despite alcohol claiming the lives of 70 people a day in the UK."

For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.