Ask the experts: Healthy mixers

Q. “I enjoy the odd nip of white rum, and I was wondering what’s the best (‘healthiest’) mix to have with it? All the mixers I find have too much sugar in them.”

Lucinda

A. HFG nutritionist Claire Turnbull responds:

The best mixers to go with rum which don’t have sugar would be most of the drinks labelled ‘diet’, for example, diet lemonade or the drinks labelled ‘zero’ such as ‘Coke zero’ or ‘Sprite zero’, or L&P’s ‘Sugar Free’ version.

Be aware that there are a few ‘diet’ drinks available which do have a little sugar still in them. Bundaberg diet lemon lime and bitters and their diet ginger beer are two examples: each fizzy drink has about one teaspoon of sugar in a 340ml bottle — but this is still far less than the 10 teaspoons in their normal full-sugar version.

When it comes to tonic water, normal tonic water is full of sugar even though it tastes bitter! You need to look for the diet tonic if you want to keep your sugar intake down.

Soda is my mixer of choice because it has no sugar or added sweeteners at all. It can be a little tart at first, but you get used to it! It is great with added slices of lemon, lime or crushed mint.