“Healthy” low-alcohol beers can be full of sugar, with some containing up to 10 times as much sugar as full-fat beers, research shows

For anyone who has been suffering from a headache for the last few days, the thought of low alcohol beer may be more appealing than usual.

Although sales of the drinks are booming among increasingly health-conscious consumers, a Mail investigation found that when it comes to their “benefits”, they can still leave a sour taste in the mouth.

Because while low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages typically contain less than half the calories of their full-fat versions, some contain up to ten times as much sugar.

Our research found that while a regular can of beer such as BrewDog IPA contains negligible amounts of sugar, non-alcoholic versions from the same brewery can contain 6 grams per 330ml can or bottle – the equivalent of one and a half teaspoons of sugar.

Old Spotted Hen Low Alcohol, on the other hand, contains 2g of sugar per 100ml, compared to just 0.2g in the regular equivalent.

Faye Thompson, a nutritional therapist, said: “It’s great to reduce alcohol consumption, but the reward for switching to non-alcoholic beer is the higher sugar content.”

“Sugar, not fat, is the real culprit when it comes to weight gain.”

Ms Thompson, of Lift Nutrition in Manchester, said drinkers should check the sugar content on labels.

For example, Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5 percent contains only 0.1 grams of sugar per 100 ml, while Big Drop Paradiso contains less than 0.5 grams. Brewers said the different sugar levels are due to the different processes used to produce low-alcohol beer.

Big Drop’s Johnny Clayton said: “In a full beer, the alcohol is created by the yeast eating the sugar extracted from the malted barley.” It is converted into alcohol by fermentation. In some low-alcohol beers, excess sugar is not converted and remains after fermentation. “We do it differently.”