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Determining if a meal has many or few calories is not as complicated as with beverages. Maybe because we usually talk about the fat and calories found in foods, as if what we drink won’t make us gain weight.

However, beverages can add many more calories to our diet than we imagine.

1. Bottled juice with a mixture of V8 juices 
A 12-ounce (355 mL) bottle of vegetable juice has 70 calories, 0 grams of fat, and 3 grams of dietary fiber.
If served in an 8-ounce (237 mL) glass, we’ll be having 50 calories.

2. Light beer This versión of beer has 4.1% alcohol, 3.2 grams of carbohydrates, and 95 calories per 12 ounces (355 mL).

3. Ginger Ale
This ginger drink is a favorite of many people, especially during the summer. Although its ingredients have no fats or cholesterol and its sodium content is very low, it is high in sugar. An 8-ounce (237 mL) glass has around 280 calories.

4. Diet Coke
Dieters love this option for a reason. An 8-ounce (240 g) glass has only 1 calorie. In addition, it contains 1% sodium and 0% carbohydrates.

5. Orange juice
With very little saturated fat and sodium, no cholesterol, and high percentage of important nutrients like potassium, vitamin C and thiamine, this juice has a lot of sugar. A 248-gram serving provides 112 calories.

6. White wine
A 5-ounce (148 mL) glass has only 84 calories. If you go out and drink a couple of glasses, you’ll be taking about 168 calories. This could be the perfect drink, since it doesn’t have fat, cholesterol, or sodium, and has only 1 gram of sugar. However, it has 10% alcohol. This means one glass of white wine contains about 15 grams of alcohol.

7. Diet Dr. Peper 
It could be called a “zero” drink since it has 0% calories, carbohydrates, fats, and sugars. It only has 1% sodium.

8. Daikiri
This trendy drink is prepared in different ways, so the exact amount of each ingredient will depend on each bar tender. The original recipe contains very little sodium and saturated fat, and no cholesterol. However, keep in mind that a 3-ounce glass of cocktail has 168 calories, so it isn’t advisable to go for second round…

9. Lemon Bacardi
An ideal drink for the night. A 3-ounce glass has 204 calories. Although it doesn’t have fat, it has 12% carbohydrates. It is probably a “permission” you can give yourself every once in a while if dinner didn’t add too many calories.

10. Piña Colada 
This official beverage of Puerto Rico even has its own song (“The Piña Colada Song” by Rupert Homes). It is high in saturated fat and alcohol, but has no cholesterol or sugar. A 3-ounce glass has 231 calories.

Something to keep in mind with drinks is that alcohol is converted into fat, so although the total amount of calories may be within the recommended amount, if the percentage allocated to alcohol is high, we’ll probably gain weight.

According to the Health Service of the University of Rochester, “Beer belly is actually the result of different complex effects of alcohol in the metabolic system. Alcohol reduces the amount of fat burned as energy by the body.”

A small amount of alcohol becomes fat. Then, the liver converts the rest into acetate, which is released into the bloodstream, replacing fat.
Therefore, the body is forced to store excess calories that are not burned, and these calories become the famous “beer belly.”

One more reason to remember being responsible with alcohol.