What Low-calorie Foods Should I Eat If I Am Going To Drink Beer?

Beer is full of empty calories, meaning it provides calories but minimal vitamins and minerals. If you are watching your caloric intake, accounting for calories in beer and monitoring your food intake can help you achieve diet success. Eating while drinking beer is essential, since food helps slow the absorption of alcohol.

Calories in Beer

There are a multitude of types of beer, varying in calorie content. Many of your favorite beers are available in a "light" version, which provides fewer calories. A full-calorie 12-oz. beer can have 150 calories or more, but enjoying a light version instead cuts calories by as much as 50 percent.

Low-Calorie Snacks

Popcorn is one of the greatest low-calorie snacks, since it provides only a few calories for such a large portion. Plain air-popped popcorn contains approximately 80 calories per 3-cup serving, the American Dietetic Association reports. Add flavor without increasing calories by sprinkling hot sauce, garlic powder or cinnamon on your popcorn. Pretzels have around 60 calories per 1/2-oz. serving, equivalent to about 7 to 10 pretzels. Your favorite varieties of chips often come in a baked version, as a way to shave off fat and calories. A serving of 10 baked potato chips provides a minimal 55 calories. Dip them in sour cream mixed with fresh chives, which contains a little more than 20 calories per 1-oz. portion.

Additional Low-Calorie Foods

You can make all of your favorite restaurant foods at home to cut out some of the calories. When baking french fries, onion rings or breaded zucchini, prepare them on a hot cookie sheet to help get them crispy. Pop your cookie sheet into the oven while it preheats and in a few minutes you'll have a piping hot pan primed for making crispy snacks. Five baked steak fries provides 100 calories, five medium baked onion rings contain 120 calories and battered and baked zucchini slices contain about 50 calories per 1/4 cup portion. You can also make a platter of nachos using baked tortilla chips, which have less than 120 calories per oz. Reduced-fat blended cheese offers only 45 calories per 1/2 oz. serving. Top your nachos with your favorite veggies including diced tomatoes, jalapenos, black olives, scallions and onions. This way you can add in some extra vitamins and minerals. These non-starchy veggies contain less than 10 calories per 1/4 cup.

Special Considerations

Limiting alcohol consumption is important for overall health. Moderate drinking is defined as one drink per day for women and two for men; one serving of beer is 12 oz. Binge drinking is having four or more drinks in one sitting, which can have adverse effects on your health, including high blood pressure. Effects of alcohol are delayed, not prevented, when food is in the stomach, explains the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Having food in your gut slows the passage of alcohol into the small intestine, the organ that absorbs around 80 percent of the alcohol you consume. Snacking on low-calorie foods while drinking beer helps slow the absorption of alcohol, minimizing its immediate effects.