(Examiner) - Alcohol consumption is not just a risk for cancer and heart disease, it’s also bad for the waistline and pocket. Did you know that a large glass of wine has more calories than a Mars Bar?

Those of us who enjoy a glass of wine most evenings probably worry, to some degree or other, about the health risks we are running

But do we stop to consider how many empty calories we are consuming? Or what we could do with the money we’d save if we stopped drinking?

Dry January, the annual abstinence campaign from national charity Alcohol Concern, has a calculator on its website that spells this out.

For example, consuming just one pint of beer and one standard glass of wine every night adds up to nearly 2,000 calories and more than £50 each week. In terms of calorie intake that’s the equivalent of a whole day’s meals for an adult.

Burning those extra calories would take 60 minutes of moderate exercise every day. Over a year this relatively modest intake represents a drinking habit that costs around £2,500.

It’s long been known that over-indulgence of beer leads to a ‘beer belly’, but it’s less well known that other forms of alcohol also play a significant part in weight gain. Dr Deborah Pufal, a senior lecturer in nutrition and the course leader for the undergraduate nutrition degree programmes at Huddersfield University, says the calories in alcohol are frequently underestimated. “A single bottle of wine has more than 600 calories and there’s a tendency to overeat while drinking,” she added. “Just giving up drinking alcohol can have a big impact on weight.”