Healthy Cocktails: Tips for Healthful Drink Infusions

I know some people are probably thinking that the title is an oxymoron, but I happen to be of the belief that one nice cocktail a day can be beneficial to your health. One drink a day can be benefit your heart, and it definitely can help relieve stress by helping you to unwind at the end of the day. You can increase the health benefit and make it more low-cal by choosing your mixers carefully.

There are lots of wonderful drinks that can be mixed with fresh fruit juices or fresh fruits and avoid the high calorie bottled mixer. Plus you receive the added antioxidant benefit of the fresh fruits and juices. For example a great margarita can be made with fresh lime juice and a little orange liqueur rather than buying the margarita mix with high fructose corn syrup and citric acid. Or be more creative do a combination of fresh lime, fresh orange, and fresh lemon juice for a really tasty margarita treat. My personal favorite is to do the citrus combination and then substitute one jigger of the juice with pure cranberry or pure pomegranate juice whose tartness makes a slightly tangy and very refreshing drink.

Another favorite low-cal and tasty cocktail is the mint mojito. This is a refreshing summer drink with fresh mint sprigs, lime, powdered sugar, sparkling water, and a little rum. Many recipes call for making simple syrup incorporating the lime and the mint. A much faster and simpler recipe is to mix a little powdered sugar (1-2 tsp. to taste) with a few sprigs of fresh mint and lime juice in the bottom of your glass and then use the back of a spoon to press the mint leaves to release it's flavor, add your rum (I usually do a jigger per tall glass or a little more), fill your glass with crushed ice and then fill with sparkling water or low sodium club soda. You could replace the powdered sugar with a very tiny amount of stevia powder (it's about 10 times sweeter that sugar), which is a natural sweetener with no calories. Another alternative sweetener is Agave nectar, which is all natural and has a lower glycemic index than sugar.

Two of my favorite juice drinks are the Salty Dog with pink grapefruit juice and vodka mixed over ice with salt on the rim or the Sea breeze with vodka and 2 jiggers each of cranberry juice and pink grapefruit juice and a twist of lime. Here you can use a 100% juice, cranberry mixed with apple juice for sweetness instead of a cranberry cocktail type drink mix sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. I also like these made with a combination of the grapefruit and a combination of pure cranberry/pomegranate juice. This will produce a slightly more tart drink that has even more antioxidant power and less sugar.

The Bloody Mary is another cocktail of healthier proportions. A small can of tomato juice, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of Bragg's Liquid Amino, a squeeze of fresh lime juice, a dash of salt and black pepper, pour over ice and stir (may add a dash of cayenne pepper or Tabasco if desired). You could use a vegetable juice in replace of the tomato juice and eliminate the salt for an even better drink for your health. Braggs Liquid Amino is a soy protein based seasoning which tastes very much like soy sauce, but it has no added sodium and "braggs" on containing 16 amino acids.

There are of course the frozen concoctions that so many people love. There is the frozen Margarita to which you can add any number of fresh or frozen fruits for added nutrition. Or the fruit daiquiri, with strawberry, mango, banana, or whatever else you want to try mixed with rum, agave nectar to taste, lime juice, orange liqueur of your choice and ice blended to smooth frozen goodness. To make a pina colada a little more low-cal buy canned coconut milk in the Asian section at the market and use instead of the coconut cream from the liquor store. Here again add agave nectar or stevia if you wish to add more sweetness rather than the usual added sugar. If you have a very sweet fresh or frozen pineapple, it may not need any added sweetener.

You get the idea; you can rework the recipe for many of your favorite drinks to include healthy ingredients and to exclude unhealthy choices, such as syrups, mixers containing high glycemic sweeteners and high sodium ingredients.

Have fun with it, experiment and mix up something a little new or do as many bars across the country are doing and create whole new healthful cocktails from your favorite ingredients. You can use any fresh fruit, fruit juice, herb, green tea, black tea, whatever you can dream up to mix with your favorite rum, vodka, tequila or other liquor and make your own cocktail infusion. So next time, mix it up and make that cocktail a healthier one.

The following links may offer some ideas to get you started.

http://cocktails.about.com/od/tequilarecipes/r/naked_marg.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/fashion/15cocktails.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref