Happy St. Patricks Day

Now, I’d hazard a guess that this isn’t the type of blog you’d expect from someone in the fitness industry. Well, you’d probably be right. However, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned through my 20 plus years in the industry, is that balance is one of the most important concepts to adopt. So assuming you’re ticking all the right boxes - getting good quality sleep, drinking adequate amounts of water, getting regular exercise, eating the right foods, etc - then there’s no reason to not enjoy those fun events that pop up in our calendar. 

Now, what do you think of when you think of St. Patrick's Day? Yeah me too, beer, lots of beer. And chances are that it’ll be the most popular Irish beer in the world, GUINNESS.  

So if you’re thinking of sinking some of the good stuff on March 17th (I know I will be) here’s some info so you can be a bit more aware of what’s in Guinness 

Guinness contains less alcohol by volume than a typical draught. For example, an average beer contains 5% Guinness clocks in at just 4.2%. 

Guinness is brewed as a stout, and because of this it’s dark in colour, its texture is creamy and its flavour has a malty, molasses-like taste. So you’d be excused for thinking it was rammed full of calories. Well, that’s not necessarily the case. Compare a can serving of bud lite which has 140 calories to Guinness which only has 15 calories more. Hardly the waistline busting drink most take it to be.

So here’s the low down on the nutrition of a pint:

PER PINT

Calories - 210

Grams of Protein - 1.9

Grams of Carbohydrate - 18.2

Grams of Fat - 0.3

Grams of Fibre - 0

Grams of Alcohol - 23.9

Oh, and the iron thing, well it’s not as huge as you’d think. In a pint, you’ll get 0.3 milligrams of iron. That equates to about 3% of adults recommended daily intake. 3 pints of Guinness will give you the same amount of iron as the yolk from 1 egg. The choice is yours.