ALCOHOL

It can be social and therapeutic. It can make us feel fun and make us feel numb. Sometimes it fixes our problems and other times it causes many more. Alcohol has been ingrained in our culture for centuries with all sorts of views being taken on its dangers as well as benefits. This article is intended to explore it from a scientific approach, with no judgement being placed on the consumer. After spending most of my twenties indulging, I have significantly reduced my consumption and in all honesty, I have never felt better. My intention here isn’t to get you to stop drinking unless of course you want to, but I do want to inform you of the basic facts on how it affects you physiologically.

If you refer back to my first article on basic nutrition, we explored the idea that there are three main macronutrients consisting of fat, protein, and carbs. It turns out that alcohol can also be considered a macronutrient. Unfortunately, unlike other macronutrients, alcohol has no storage capability in the body and therefore, needs to be eliminated from the body in some way. Alcohol is also very calorie dense, as compared to the 9 calories per gram of fat, alcohol contains 7 calories per gram. To put it into real world terms, here are following estimates as per the USDA:

12 ounce can of regular beer - 145 calories

5 fluid ounces of red wine - 125 calories

1.5 fluid ounces of vodka - 96 calories

5 fluid ounces of champagne - 96 calories

1.5 fluid ounces of scotch - 105 calories

This list can go on for quite a while, but I think the important thing to understand aside from the boring numbers of it is that alcohol contributes to your overall daily intake of calories in a substantial way. If you compare alcohol to food calorically, 2 glasses of wine is almost the equivalent of a meal containing 2 whole eggs and 1 piece of toast. Some folks consider that to be a filling breakfast, but I hear people speak daily of their 2-3 glass of wine a night consumption.

Stepping aside from boring calories for a moment, lets address what happens when you ingest alcohol. To our bodies, alcohol is seen as a poison that stresses our body systemically. That means that your body needs to start the complicated metabolic process of breaking it down and excreting it so that it does not destroy your internal functions. We have certain enzymes that help with this process and without going into the complexity of alcohol metabolism, just understand that since your body’s priority is to rid itself of it, it must put other metabolic processes on hold in order to prioritize the elimination of alcohol. That means that digestion slows, stress hormones like cortisol elevate, and metabolism of nutrients such as fat, carbs and protein has to slow or even stop to prioritize the alcohol. How does that relate to real life?

From the top, when digestion slows, it inhibits your gut function in general and will obviously affect your digestive motility i.e. your bowel movements. In addition, as your digestion becomes effected, your body’s ability to pull nutrients from food for use on a cellular level is reduced, basically reducing your ability to properly fuel your body. So as your body is fighting hard to digest the alcohol in your belly as well as trying to still grab some nutrients out of your food, its being stressed more than normal so cortisol levels increase. Elevated cortisol comes with all sorts of fun implications such as poor sleep quality, increase in blood pressure, increase in blood glucose, decrease in sex drive, anxiety, depression, fat gain, etc. So after your body has spent some significant energy trying to get rid of the alcohol, it can finally get back to business and deal with the food you’ve consumed or will consume. Simply stated, alcohol can acutely and in the long term impact how efficiently your body processes food.

I know this all sounds pretty bad and in fact, it isn’t good, but there is still room for indulgence as long as you are conscious of your daily intake. The problems from alcohol come with prolonged consumption and its cumulative effect. That being said, alcohol can be consumed in moderation IF you are accounting for it along with the other food you consume daily. In the world of calories in vs. calories out, we’ve learned simplistically that when you consume more calories than you burn, you will gain fat. For the average person, counting calories is a difficult task that adds unnecessary stress to their day, but if you take anything away from this article, take away these simple guidelines. Consider alcohol as a carb. If we understand that carbs are used to fuel activity, and you are generally an inactive person, maybe eating carbs all day and drinking alcohol isn’t the best idea. If you are a fairly active person, you can probably afford some carbs with your meals daily and even fit some alcohol in there as well, but understand that if you are not losing fat and are trying to, alcohol is an easy thing to manipulate in order to facilitate fat loss.

In my opinion, moderation to the average individual is key. If you are consuming more than 5 alcoholic beverages multiple times per week, you are negatively impacting your overall health. If you want to consume 1-2 alcoholic beverages a couple of time per week, I think that is totally reasonable as long as you have your other dietary habits under control. If you are a person struggling with fat loss and/or overall health, alcohol should be limited or even non-existent in your daily intake. Understand that alcohol is an extra, non-essential thing to your body. It is treated as a poison in your body for a reason and knowing that, it is up to you to act accordingly. I challenge people to not drink for a few weeks all the time and the results are almost always positive. If you can’t or more likely the case won’t stop drinking, understand that your ability to lose fat will be diminished by the frequency and quantity of your consumption. On that note, Cheers and keep up the good work!

Email me at aram@4weeks2thebeach with any nutritional guidance you need!