Frequently Asked Questions

• Is drinking cocktails with your mixers acceptable if I have diabetes?
• What is the RDA for sugar?
• What sweeteners do you use?
• Some mixers have juice concentrates in the ingredients – don't these have carbs and sugars?
• Why do some people gain weight from drinking?
• How do Good Spirits Mixers compare to other brands?

This is really an individual thing. If you choose to drink the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends you use sugar free mixers. The ADA also says that alcohol can be added to the diet as long as your blood sugar control is well established and you have no other conditions that may be complicated with alcohol consumption. The same recommendations holds true for diabetics as for the general population: Always check product ingredients for individual compatibility, check with your doctor if you have questions and always, always use alcohol responsibly.

While there is no established RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) for sugar in a persons diet the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) recommends that sugar make up no more than 10% of the daily intake of calories or 40g for a 2000 calorie diet. This is even less that the recommendations made in a report released in 2006 by the World Health Organization that urges people to limit intake to 12 teaspoons (48g) of added (free) sugar a day based on a 2,000 calorie diet. (Sugar 4 grams = 1 teaspoon sugar). Check out the check out the comparison chart below, are you over the limit with the other guys? Most likely, sure takes the "happy" outta "happy hour" now doesn't it?

Our cocktail mixers achieve authentic taste because they are sweetened with a blend of Acesulfame Potassium (Ace K)and Sucralose. These sweeteners are known to work well together and create a more sugar-like taste with no artificial aftertaste. Here is the best of it. Using this blend of artificial sweeteners allows us to use less of each. No Aspartame headache phenylalanine warnings or saccharine lab rat bladder cancer scares here. Still artificial sweeteners are not for everyone, some have been known to cause bloating, flatulence or diarrhea (especially the ones we DO NOT use). Know we tried them all and found using Acesulfame Potassium along with Sucralose (which is sometimes sold in the yellow packets or under the brand name Splenda) tastes best. The imbedded links bring you to the International Food Information Councils information web pages about these sweeteners. Really informative stuff! Oh yeah you can find these same links and another on the Ingredients page.

According to the FDA "calorie-free" means fewer than 5 calories per serving and "sugar-free" means less than 0.5g per serving. A daily intake if 2,000 calories is the established reference. A serving of Good Spirits Mixers has less than these amounts.

According to Elizabeth Somer, R.D., a nutritionist and author of The Origin Diet (Henry Holt, 2001) "The reason you gain weight from alcohol is that you don't compensate by eating less later. You still eat the same amount, regardless of whether you had the drink." A 1.5-ounce shot of any 80-proof liquor vodka, rum, tequila, gin etc has about 96 calories. A straight shot of 100 proof has about 124 calories. (The proof number is twice the alcohol content of the beverage so 80 proof means the liquor is 40 % alcohol 100 proof is 50 %.) Proceeding is why so many experts say if you are going drink alcohol use sugar free and low calorie mixers as to add fewer empty calories to your diet.

All you cocktail lovers out there stop at just one drink. Right? Yeah right. Check it out - Add up the sugar and calories and learn that drinking any two servings of any the mixers below (except Good Spirits of course) can tip the sugary scales.