Premixed alcoholic drinks are not known for their health benefits. But that hasn’t stopped a boom in products being marketed with “better for you” claims designed to appeal to younger, more health-conscious drinkers.

Labels such as “low sugar”, “gluten-free” and “low carb” are being used in advertising to promote the products, and social media influencers spruik the products under the hashtag #healthydrinking.

But what do these labels actually mean, and is it really possible for alcohol to be healthy?

What is ‘low sugar’ or ‘low calorie’ alcohol?

Food policy expert Prof Simone Pettigrew at the George Institute for Global Health recently ran a research focus group asking participants for their thoughts on a premixed alcoholic drink labelled as “low sugar” and “low carb”.

She said that “as soon as you put low sugar, low carb, gluten free, any of these on a product, people assume it’s a relatively healthy product overall”.

A recent paper led by Pettigrew saw researchers audit 534 ready-to-drink alcoholic products and found one in five did not display a mandatory ingredients list.

On top of this, of the 424 products that did list ingredients, almost half contained industrial additives associated with ultra-processing, such as synthetic colours, sweeteners and flavour enhancers, placing them in the same........

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