diet tom collins

Alcoholic drinks are loaded with calories and are typically something your doctor will tell you to cut back on when you're on a diet. Luckily the plan I'm on isn't a diet, so I haven't cut back on the booze, but I am interested in cutting back on calories.

How do you cut back calories on drinks, other than drinking less of them? Let's look at the Tom Collins. This is a classic drink that is easy to make. There are variations of it out there, but it is basically a shot of gin, lime juice, tonic water, and simple syrup. On average this drink is about 190 calories. Just by inspection of the ingredients, the obvious calorie problems are the gin and the simple syrup. Right? To some extent, yes, but the tonic water is another issue. Depending on how much you use, it will add roughly 30 to 60 calories to the drink (it has 124 calories in a 12 oz can).

So how can we reduce the calories to say 100 calories? Let's start with the gin. A 1 oz shot of gin has 65 calories. Typically, when you get a drink at a bar, you get 1.5 oz of alcohol in a shot. So let's make our drink with 1 oz of gin. Then, to make the drink full of flavor, use fresh squeezed lime juice. For reference, a whole lime has 20 calories. I use half a lime. Always use fresh ingredients where possible when mixing drinks. This will greatly improve the flavor profile of the drink.

We'll substitute diet tonic for regular tonic, which makes this part of the drink zero calories. I can't taste the difference between diet and regular tonic, but maybe you're more particular. Then we'll ditch the simple syrup or substitute Splenda or Truvia to taste. If we add up the calories in the drink, we're at about 75 calories, down from 190 calories.

I'm sure some of you will correctly point out that I cut down the amount of alcohol in the drink and suggested using Splenda in it. If your goal is to get hammered, then don't bother with this recipe. However, if you want to enjoy a cocktail and strive towards losing weight, then this is a hell of a compromise.

Furthermore, let's assume you drink 4 Tom Collins (or drinks like it) a week. If you trim the calories on each one down by the amount I showed here, assuming you lose a pound for each 3500 calories you burn, then you would lose roughly 7 pounds a year (!) just by trimming the calories in this drink.

What does this recipe have to do with eating spicy foods? Absolutely nothing. However, in the interest of trimming down caloric intake, it is good to keep tricks, like the ones I showed in this recipe, in mind.

Posted in: cocktails,diet,eatheat,gin