New 'Free From' bar serves cocktails that are good for you. Sort of.
How easy is it to be healthy these days? In an ideal world, we’d like to maintain a healthy lifestyle whilst also eating and drinking as we want but finding a balance can be difficult – especially if you’re lacking in self discipline and partial to a glass of wine.
We all want to try and have some sort of clean eating diet, but we also want to enjoy ourselves, live life and actually treat ourselves on occasion. For many of us, this involves going out for dinner, enjoying a cocktail (or three!) and maybe throwing some dubious shapes to a 2005 dance floor hit. But what about the calories and the unhealthy ingredients? Is it even possible to go out to a bar and have a healthy option? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as just avoiding alcohol, there are also plenty of hidden ingredients that we didn’t even know existed in our food.
Being conscious of ingredients is something that has inspired Margarita Kalna, founder of ‘Free From Events’, to open Naughty By Nature, London’s first free-from bar. With the rise of clean eating bloggers and lifestyle gurus, it’s surprising that the capital hasn’t seen one open sooner.
“One of my close friends has a serious medical condition which requires her to follow a particular diet that avoids dairy, gluten and refined sugars” explains Margarita, ”Whenever we would go out I could see how hard it was for her to find anywhere that catered for her diet – even in the shops, the options were few and far between.”
This led to Margarita starting Free From Festival, the UK’s first gluten, dairy and refined sugar free food festival, which has been held every year since 2014.. “Through running the Free From Festival our team realised there were a lot of people living clean healthy lifestyles that wanted to avoid refined sugar and minimise their intake. But these were fun, social people at the same time, people that would love to go out and have a good time.”
Enter Naughty By Nature, a weekend treat for London’s health conscious, but fun-loving foodies. With brunch clubs and wellness events being held in the same space, the Free From team wanted to create somewhere more than just a bar space, so have combined the bar with healthy free-from street food options.
It’s not just for people who have medical intolerances either. Although Margarita’s friends have intolerances, Margarita herself doesn’t but, like the many of trying to strike some sort of balance with our diet, she likes to eat clean, healthy food and avoid preservatives where possible. “I also find that ‘free from’ producers take the most care about what goes into their food. They often use high quality ingredients which is reassuring, but most bars and clubs don’t offer a menu that fits in with healthier lifestyle choices.”
How can you make a cocktail healthier though? Cocktails using real fruit can provides lots of vitamins but we have to accept that alcohol naturally contains sugar. So whilst sugar can’t be completely avoided, some cocktail recipes are certainly less healthy than others and Naughty By Nature aims to avoid unnecessary and refined sugars. All their cocktail ingredients exclude artificial additives, colours and flavours too.
Alcohol aside, there are other hidden culprits that you need to watch out for. Cocktails and soft drinks are often high in fructose or corn syrup – the ‘bad’ kind of sugars that are easily converted into fat and increase the risk of obesity and weight gain. “Excessive intake of these is a key cause of diabetes.” says Margarita, “They contain no essential nutrients, just calories.”
Is there a healthy option that we can look out for or request? “Avoid adding refined sugar or cane sugar-” advises Margarita, “The fruits and other natural ingredients are sweet enough themselves.” This means using crushed pure fruit or pure fruit zest in place of pre-made juice and trying premium quality spirits that have been created with natural or organic ingredients. Knowing the source of your ingredients and making things from scratch ensures you aren’t mistakenly consuming hidden sugars and nasties.
Create a clean(ish) cocktail at home
For a fruity fix that’s under 150 calories, try this fruity cocktail which replaces the sugary elements of a frozen margarita with natural fruit.
Per serving, you’ll need:
A glass of ice
A large handful of frozen berries
50ml of sparkling water
½ lime, freshly squeezed
50ml premium tequila (we like Creencias Tequila – it’s organic too!)
Coarse salt
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Rub the rim of your glass with a lime wedge and dip into the salt.
Voila! A naturally sweet cocktail, without any added sugars or artificial ingredients. If you’re feeling super disciplined, just replace the tequila with more sparkling water.
The Naughty By Nature bar is open for the rest of April, with the next Free From festival being held in Spitalfields Market on 28 May.
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