Are mocktails healthy?
They’re healthier than cocktails, because the alcohol is the costly part of any drink. But “mocktail” can mean anything from seltzer with lime to a glass of soda and syrup. USDA lists 12 oz of ginger ale at 124 calories and 32 g of carbs. Build a mocktail on seltzer and a splash of juice and you get the ritual with almost none of the cost.
Mocktails are on most menus now, which is good news for anyone cutting back. The catch is that a recipe that has to taste good without alcohol can lean hard on sugar.
What we’d do
Order or make mocktails on a soda water base, with fresh citrus, herbs, a little juice or a few dashes of bitters. Ask for less syrup. Treat the sweet, juice-heavy ones as dessert, and they’re still a better choice than the cocktail.
The pros
- No alcohol. That removes the cancer risk, the blood pressure push and the broken second half of the night. Across 27 studies, even about two drinks cut REM sleep.
- They keep the moment. A good glass, something to sip, a reason to be at the bar. That’s most of what people miss when they cut back.
- They can be almost calorie-free. Club soda has none, by USDA’s tables.
The cons
- Sugar. USDA lists 12 oz of ginger ale at 124 calories and cola at 152. A mocktail built on those plus juice can pass NIAAA’s 168 calories for a 4 oz margarita.
- Acid. Sweet, acidic soft drinks are much harder on tooth enamel than sparkling water, which dissolved enamel about a hundred times less in a lab test. Sip, don’t swirl, and drink water alongside.
Three that are easy and low in sugar
- Lime and bitters: soda water, half a lime squeezed, three or four dashes of bitters, lots of ice.
- Cucumber mint: soda water with a few cucumber slices, muddled mint and a squeeze of lemon.
- Tart spritz: soda water with a splash of tart cherry or cranberry juice and an orange slice, in a wine glass.
The best non-alcoholic drinks has more, from NA beer to alcohol-removed wine.
0 US drinks
Sparkling water with lime, 12 oz, 0%: 0 g of alcohol and about 0 calories from the alcohol alone.
When will tonight's drinks clear?
Bed at 11:00pm
Mostly cleared by 2:50am
That's about 3.8 hours of your sleep with alcohol in your blood (3.1 to 4.9 if your liver runs faster or slower).
Restaurant pour6 oz, 13.5%, 1.35 US drinks- Restaurant pour6 oz, 13.5%, 1.35 US drinks
REM: More REM lost. Your evening is 0.56 g of alcohol per kg of body weight.
The full clock, with the band, the same drinks two hours earlier and what your heart does.
5 sources
- US Department of Agriculture, Nutritive Value of Foods, Home and Garden Bulletin 72, 2002ars.usda.gov
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Rethinking Drinking, Alcohol Calorie Calculatorrethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov
- National Cancer Institute, Alcohol and Cancer Risk, reviewed May 2, 2025cancer.gov
- Gardiner C and others, The effect of alcohol on subsequent sleep in healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2025pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Parry J, Shaw L, Arnaud MJ, Smith AJ, Investigation of mineral waters and soft drinks in relation to dental erosion, Journal of Oral Rehabilitation, 2001pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
