11 Mixers That Make Alcohol Healthier

ull disclosure: Alcohol ranks pretty low on the scale of healthy things to put in your body. Not to get all preachy, but it contains calories that don't fill you up, it lowers your inhibitions so you end up eating more, it dehydrates you and also causes you to retain water and that means you feel bloated and puffy, and it takes up so much of your liver's attention that the organ stops metabolizing fat efficiently.

Of course, none of that makes drinking any less fun - or makes you want to skip happy hour. To mitigate the harmful effects of your buzz, choose mixers that don't just make alcohol more palatable, but go one step further to make your drink a bit healthier.

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1. Sparkling Water (About 4 ounces): Free of calories and artificial ingredients, sparkling water beats regular soda and most juices, which contain loads of sugar and excess calorie consumption. Even if you prefer wine to hard alcohol, you can add a splash of soda drinking water to your glass to increase the volume of your drink without adding extra calories to it.

Tastes great with: 1 ounce vodka (about 4/5 of a standard shot cup) and a splash of cranberry juice (not cocktail) and serve over ice.

2. Hot Sauce (About 2 dashes): The spicy stuff can give your beverage a kick without contributing many calorie consumptions. While booze tends to increase your appetite, a super-spicy cocktail can minimize the damage by increasing your metabolism and speeding up digestion, Dr. Cederquist says.

Tastes good with 1-ounce vodka and 4 ounces tomato fruit juice. Serve over ice.

3. Jalapeños (About ½ a pepper, diced): Like hot sauce, very hot jalapeños can increase your body's temperature, which makes your body work additional hard to keep its cool. While Dr Cederquist says you'd have to eat an extra-large serving to reap substantial benefits, this ingredient can, at least in theory, temporarily boost your metabolism to help the body process calories more efficiently. (And that's more than you can say for an extra-large helping of straight-up tequila.)

Tastes great with 1-ounce tequila, 1-ounce fresh lime juice, and 1 teaspoon or packet of sugars. Shake with ice and strain to serve.

4. Lemon Juice (1 ounce): Unlike lemonade, a squeeze of straight-up citrus contributes juicy flavour for half as many calories and far less glucose, ounce for ounce.

Tastes good with: 1-ounce gin, 1 teaspoon or even packet of sugar (which is less than the amount of sugar inside lemonade), 1-ounce sparkling water. Function over ice.

5. Lime Fruit juice (1 ounce): Fresh lime juice is an excellent source of vitamin C, an essential nutrient and antioxidant that can make a cold suck less by shortening its length and severity. Because alcoholic beverages can reduce your ability to fight off infections for up to 24 hours after you obtain drunk, you can use all the help you can get. 

Tastes great with: 1 ounce white rum, mint leaves, 1 teaspoon or packet of stevia (or another natural sweetener), and soda water.

6. Watermelon (4 ounces): Made up of more than 90 percent water, naturally sweet frozen watermelon makes a slushy and satisfying drink without the artificial ingredients and added sugars found in daiquiris mixes and other frozen cocktails. Watermelon also adds a dose of fiber to greatly help manage an alcohol-fueled hunger, and lycopene, an antioxidant with anti-cancer properties.

Tastes good with: 1 ounce tequila or even rum. Use a blender to combine until smooth.

7. Muddled Berries (2 ounces): Most fruit-flavored, icy drinks like piña coladas and daiquiris are full of processed sugars. While a couple of berries won't assist you to hit your daily produce requirements, the fruit will normally sweeten your beverage and infuse it with vitamins and nutrients.

Tastes great with: 2 ounces rum, ½ banana, and ice. Work with a blender to mix until smooth.

8. Low-Cal Orange Juice (2 ounces): Unlike diet soda, that is filled with iffy synthetic sweeteners, reduced-calorie orange fruit juice tends to contain the real stuff, simply watered down. (You can make your own from normal OJ at home, or ask a bartender to combine equal parts juice and water.) While sugary juice is generally frowned upon as a mixer because it's full of liquid calorie consumption, OJ does contain supplement C. And because heavy drinking is associated with vitamin C deficiency, which can cause fatigue on top of your hangover, it's smart to get a supplementary dose of supplement C when you can. 

Tastes good with: 1 ounce whiskey and 1 ounce nice vermouth. Assist over ice.

9. Iced Green Tea (4 ounces): Long considered a superfood, research done on rats suggests that antioxidant-rich green tea, which contains special compounds called polyphenols with anti-inflammatory properties, appear to protect the liver from alcohol-induced harm - which obviously can't hurt.

Tastes great with 1-ounce bourbon. Work over ice.

10. Low-Calorie Soda (6 ounces): While the things don't cure cancer or promote weight loss or anything, soda from brands like Zevia, which is sweetened with the naturally low-calorie sweetener Stevia instead of artificial sweeteners, can taste your drink without contributing tons of calories.

Tastes good with 1-ounce rum or vodka.

11. Ice: By taking up space in your glass, ice replaces extraneous components and leaves little room for extra alcohol and mixers (and the calories therein). It also waters down your beverage as it melts. That's a good thing, especially if you're bad about drinking water on long nights out, which is a time-tested way to combat alcohol's dehydrating effects.

Tastes great with: Any of the recipes above.

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