Sam Adams Light is excellent. Good even compared to some "real"beers.

Grolsch (sp?) Light is also very good.

Heineken Light is decent.

I dug around and found out that even the regular lager is one of the lowest Calorie beers that I came across (135, I think). The light is about 35 less. Personally, the more I thought about it, the more I decided to just stick with the lager instead of going to the light.

BB.

Guinness: is best fresh on draught, That's the ticket. Truely outstanding.
I guess I got to come clean on this; I really don't like light beer. Americans like to 'pound beers'. I'm learning to 'enjoy' a beer. I find I don't drink as much. But there are times (this past Thursday) I over do it. Takes time to teach FROGs (F**kin Real Old Guy) like me.


Not to change the subject, but while I was in Manchester, UK I tasted just about every high end Scotch. I got a favorite one too: Delwhinnie. For you Scotch drinkers, use only one block of ice; too much ruins the flavor. If I had more time I would have done the "Whiskey Trails" in Scotland. Similar to the wineries in CA, they have 70 miles of visiting distillers. I get excited just thinking about it. I plan more free time the next time I'm there. Drinking and playing golf in Scotland. Almost better than sex.

Heineken Light is decent, Pup.

I have drank darker beers for many years & if Guiness & Anti-Freeze were my only 2 choices, I'd have to give it some thought.

Yeah, a lot of people don't understand American beer is designed to be drunk all day long... as in breakfast to bedtime. I know people who do that but it is not for me. I would rather have a few good tasting beers than sip bitter fizzy water all day.

I'll skip the golf and focus on drinking :D Scotch tasting in Scotland is on my list of things to do before I die.

I beleive I have had Delwhinnie and yes it is very very good.

Natti light baby, thats what we drink at 8am before the first home game at Miami of Ohio

I tried the Sam Adams light last night followed by a regular Sam Adams Ale.

The light was disappointing.

I think I will go back to the full bodied beers and just try to have a couple less.

It's more than just calories!

Personally, I became a regular wine drinker and was still running each day, some days as far as 10 miles and was still carrying many extra pounds (over 200!). After I cut my wine drinking to a few glasses a month, while still maintaining the running, I quickly dropped the weight and returned to my high school weight of 175. My extra weight was ALL booze (alcohol) related and not solely calorie based.

I found this article at the Johns Hopkins site. Emphasis added in bold is mine.


Time to fear beer

Body by Marcus

By: Marcus Gonzales

Posted: 12/3/04

I received a call from the Dean of Student Life last week. She offered me straight As next semester if I wrote an article about the disadvantages of alcohol. Well, maybe not. But I do think it is an important topic to cover since I know a lot of guys that complain about their body fat, but then spend Thursday night through Saturday night drinking their faces off.

According to a study by Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale, M.D., "the main problem with alcohol is not the number of calories it contains but rather the effect it has on fat metabolism."

The study has shown that even a small amount of alcohol has a large impact on fat metabolism. Eight men were given two drinks of vodka and lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained about 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink.

For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation, a common measurement for the amount of fat your body is burning, dropped by 73 percent.

That means that in addition to consuming the calories of many beers and mixed drinks, your body is actually slowing the breakdown of calories that you have already consumed. When alcohol is consumed, it easily passes from the stomach and intestines into the blood and goes to the liver. In the liver, an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase mediates the conversion of alcohol to acetaldehyde.

Acetaldehyde is rapidly converted to acetate by more enzymes. So rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into acetate. The amount of acetate formed is dependant on the amount of alcohol consumed. Dr. Pasquale claims that the sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss.

Your body tends to use whatever you feed it, and after a while becomes adapted to the nutrients you give it. Unfortunately, when acetate levels rise, your body burns the acetate instead of burning body fat or carbohydrates. Remember back to Bio class: acetate is basically the same product of beta oxidation of fatty acids and glycolysis. In this process, the glucose turns to pyruvate and then to acetate. When you add in the acetate produced from alcohol, the body realizes that it no longer requires the metabolic work to produce the necessary acetate. In that sense, your body takes the same stance on acetate as some people on welfare: Why work when you're getting the reward for free?

As far as fat metabolism is concerned, alcohol can be worse than taking in straight carbohydrates (carbs). When you ingest carbs the body gets the chance to metabolize through various steps to form acetate whereas acetate is formed from alcohol in just a few steps.

And if it's not bad enough, alcohol even has more calories than carbs. Haven't you ever wondered how low carb beers justify their labeling? The beers contain less than 100 calories even though they only have about 2.5 grams of carbs and 0.5 grams of protein. Using an estimate of about four calories per gram of carb and the same for protein, the beer would only have 12 calories! (If only dreams were true) So where do the other 80 or so calories come from? You guessed it, alcohol. The 12 grams of alcohol in your average low carb beer makes up the remaining 80 calories, at about seven calories per gram.

If you thought it couldn't get any worse, you were wrong. Before you pick up that beer, keep in mind that acute alcohol intoxication impairs protein synthesis and also disrupts the release of the anabolic hormones.

When it comes to partying and staying in shape, think twice about what you are drinking. And remember that a glass of water and a fun-loving attitude costs zero calories and makes you feel a lot better in the morning.

© Copyright 2007 News-Letter

source: http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2004/12/03/Features/Time-To.Fear.Beer-2243871.shtml

Best,

Kurt

Oh yeah.... I remember that class. :confused:


http://www.ratebeer.com/beerimages/full_size/413.jpg

(just kidding)

Kurt,

Very informative post.

I vote it most depressing post of the day.:D:p:D:p

Becks Light...64 Calories and 3.9 grams of Carbos.

Why compromise if you can drink in moderation? Have one or two good beers instead of 4 or 5 lights. I'll have one large bottle of good IPA (Stone, Dogfishead, etc) or stout (Rogue) on a Saturday and that really satisfies my taste for a beer. These beers are considerably more alcoholic though.

Now, eating malty crow, I fully admit that on NASCAR weekend I drink only Miller Lite because the consumption is...frat-like.

Another random thought and although Kurt's post makes intuitive sense (all kinds of alcohol slow your fat-burning metabolism), have you ever seen a whisky belly? Wine belly?

In any event, I love beer or whisky threads and had to chime in.

Jack

Mmmmm, the beast. Thank you for many mornings of the runs, thanks to many $9.99 30 packs. Oh, the good old days...........

+2

"Sol" here too. I'm surprised at the number of people who have mentioned it out of all the beers mentioned. I sort of considered it a realtively obscure beer.

light , you mean like, girly beer ??

in Flanders, we got table beer
kids drink it with diner, it's only 1.5% alcohol

helps with digestion, bit sweet tasting , ( coz the youngn's haven't go the taste for real beer yet),but not bad perse
http://www.beer-paradise.com/images/..._pied_brun.jpg

light enough for ya?

If you drank it in the UK south of Liverpool, you still haven't tasted "real" Guinness, because the Irish stuff is only shipped to Liverpool and points north (because it doesn't travel well) - anything further south is locally-brewed in the UK, pr so I'm told. It does make a difference.

I don't even like Guinness overmuch, but there's nothing in pubs in Ireland but stout - and they taste absolutely amazing there, completely different.

All the beer imported into the USA from the UK is pasteurized, which is why I pretty much gave up drinking beer when I lived there, it destroys the taste. To my palate, all US microbrews have an odd aftertaste, even though some start quite promisingly.

I'm puzzled by the thread though - I thought American beer was "light beer" by definition? IIRC, there's a legal limit to the maximum alchohol content (5%?) of non-microbrew beer.

That's about where traditional English ales stop being insipid and tasteless refreshing beverages and become interesting.

I was introduced to "Sol" 23 yrs ago in a bar in NYC called the Big Kahuna. It was a surfing themed place, with sand on the floor and a big fiberglass wave over the bar. First time I was ever handed a beer with a lime in it. I was like "what the hell is this crap??"
Been hooked ever since. Although I could do without the lime.

On really hot days, I really like Sol with salt and lime (Chelada). Very refreshing. I'm here in Mexico, and another good (darker) beer is Indio. Very good, IMO.

A much as I love Guinness, I just can't do it on hot days, especially if I have work to do. Just too filling. Of course, Yeungling is great too, but a little too 'heavy' on very hot days. Jeesh, sounds like a wimpy post, but I only weigh 150 lbs, so every 12 ounces counts...:D

Coors Lite. I'm sure that there are better tasting beers but for your money and the end effect, nothing beats having a chilly Coors Lite on a hot afternoon in the driveway. Never had anyone refuse one when I offered!