Is tequila healthy?
On this page
No. Tequila is alcohol, and a 1.5 oz shot at 40% is one full US standard drink. The idea that it’s the “healthy” liquor comes from a 2014 mouse study of agavins, sugars in the agave plant, which helped mice eat less. But the team said it plainly: when tequila is made, the agavins are turned into alcohol, so they aren’t in the bottle.
Every few years a headline makes tequila the drink that helps you lose weight or lowers blood sugar. It’s a good story, because it starts with a real finding. It just isn’t about tequila.
What we’d do
Treat tequila like any other spirit: one shot is one drink. If you like it, a tequila and soda with lime has far fewer calories than a margarita.
Where the claim comes from
In March 2014, researchers led by Mercedes López in Mexico presented a study at the American Chemical Society’s meeting. Mice given agavins, chains of fructose from the agave plant that the body can’t break down, ate less, lost weight and had lower blood sugar than mice given other sweeteners. The ACS release said “because the agavins are converted to ethanol, agavins are not found in the finished product.”
The pros
- Few calories for a spirit, on its own. NIAAA lists 1.5 oz of 80-proof tequila, gin, rum, vodka or whiskey at 97 calories, nearly all from the alcohol.
- Clear spirits may give a milder hangover. In a study of 95 young adults, people felt worse after bourbon than vodka at the same blood level, which the researchers put down to congeners, the extra compounds in darker drinks. Their sleep and focus took the same hit either way. Clear drinks give smaller hangovers
The cons
- It’s alcohol. The same seven cancers, the same blood pressure rise and the same broken sleep as any drink.
- Margaritas. NIAAA lists a 4 oz margarita at 168 calories, and one made with a double pour of tequila is two drinks.
- Shots go fast. Four shots in about two hours is NIAAA’s binge line for women, five for men.
1 US drinks
Shot, 1.5 oz, 40%: 14 g of alcohol and about 98 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
- American Chemical Society, Sweetener from tequila plant could help lower blood sugar, EurekAlert, March 16, 2014eurekalert.org
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Rethinking Drinking, Alcohol Calorie Calculatorrethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, What Is A Standard Drink? Updated December 2025niaaa.nih.gov
- Rohsenow DJ and others, Intoxication with bourbon versus vodka: effects on hangover, sleep, and next-day neurocognitive performance in young adults, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2010pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- National Cancer Institute, Alcohol and Cancer Risk, reviewed May 2, 2025cancer.gov
