Health halo: How we’re being misled by ‘guilt-free’ booze

 

No carbohydrates, low carbohydrates, reduced sugar, light options, keto-approved… these phrases are only a few examples that the alcohol sector uses to persuade us that its beverages are beneficial for our health.

When you enter “low-carb beers” into a search engine, an AI-generated summary outlines how the brewers market their products as a “refreshing, reduced-carbohydrate” choice compared to conventional lagers – and a “guilt-free” option for drinking.

Similarly, low-sugar and low-carb wines are gaining popularity as more consumers focus on health, with at least one prominent Australian wine retailer even featuring a specific “keto wine” section on its site.

However, new research from Australia emphasizes that it is alcohol itself that poses the “main source of health risks. ”

In a study conducted by the George Institute for Global Health and the University of NSW with 2034 Australian drinkers, subjects were shown alcoholic beverages that did and did not include nutrition-related claims and were asked to evaluate how healthy they perceived each option. All drinks contained identical amounts of alcohol.

The findings were surprising, it concluded.

Participants were almost three times more inclined to consider a product healthy when it featured a carbohydrate claim and more than twice as likely when it included a sugar claim. 

Claims regarding energy and calories also led drinkers to view a product as healthier, but to a lesser degree.

These assertions create a misleading health halo around products that do not deserve it, cautioned researcher Asad Yusoff.

The alcohol content – which is the actual factor contributing to cancer risk, liver issues, and various other health dangers – remains unchanged.

Consumers are being deceived. 

Participants in the study were randomly given three groups of three different types of alcohol – such as beer, cider, wine, spirits, or pre-mixed drinks – each adorned with mock product labels, all having the same volume and alcohol content. For each grouping, they were asked which products they preferred to purchase and then to evaluate how healthy they found them on a five-point scale.

The percentage of respondents who considered the products healthy increased from 13 percent to 26 percent for carbohydrate claims, from 18 percent to 31 percent for sugar claims, and from 21 percent to 33 percent for energy claims.

Women were nearly one and a half times more likely than men to classify a product with a calorie claim as healthy, “indicating that these strategies may have a disproportionate impact on health-aware female consumers,” the researchers noted.

The research determined that the extensive use of such assertions in the alcohol industry could jeopardize the recent decline in alcohol usage, especially among vulnerable demographics like younger individuals.

Even though alcohol companies’ non-alcoholic alternatives might appear to be a better choice, a follow-up investigation by the same organizations discovered that their growing presence in grocery stores poses issues as well.

The study revealed that zero-alcohol offerings from alcohol brands make up 59 percent of all non-alcoholic beverages in Australian grocery stores, an increase from 37 percent in the previous year, with the variety of such products more than doubling over the same timeframe (from 110 items to 261).

These products are placed next to soft drinks and juices on store shelves, which means that children are also seeing logos and packaging associated with alcohol brands.

Supermarkets were once seen as a safe environment free from alcohol marketing, stated Professor Simone Pettigrew from the George Institute for Global Health.

What we are witnessing now is a gradual dismantling of that safeguard.

These items feature identical branding, packaging, and brand connections as their alcoholic versions. The exposure is significant, and the regulatory measures have not caught up.

Although low-carb beer has existed for over twenty years, its popularity and market presence have surged in Australia in recent times.

By the conclusion of 2025, breweries were sharing that sales of low-carb and non-alcoholic beers had jumped by as much as 20 percent, as stated in the Australian Financial Review.

The publication noted that one Australian firm offering a variety of products with differing levels of alcohol, labeled as zero carb, ultra low carb, and low sugar, saw a 25 percent rise in its revenue during the last financial year.

Meanwhile, a representative from Endeavour Group, which runs Dan Murphy’s and BWS, informed the AFR that 1.5 out of every 10 beers sold at their stores belonged to the low-carb or no-carb category, indicating that this segment is anticipated to keep expanding.

Given the rising number of individuals aiming to limit their alcohol consumption, researchers from the George Institute and UNSW highlighted the importance of ensuring that information about the nutritional aspects of beverages does not overshadow the actual alcohol content.

They pointed out that even minimal alcohol intake carries a considerable risk of developing oesophageal, colorectal, and breast cancers—risks that many drinkers remain largely unaware of.

The researchers remarked, The extensive utilization of claims by the industry and its impact on how healthful these products are perceived can be compared to earlier strategies by the tobacco industry promoting ‘light’ and mild cigarettes as safer alternatives. 

Consequently, they emphasized that it is vital for policymakers to implement measures that limit such claims—not just to safeguard vulnerable groups, like younger drinkers, but to protect the wider drinking community as well.