For many of us, drinking alcohol is a rare but enjoyable social activity and with the Christmas party season just about upon us what better reason do you need to enjoy a little tipple. However, excessive drinking over the festive period can have a negative effect in terms of your body composition and weight and here’s why.
As most of you will know alcohol is made from the yeast fermentation of different fruits or grains including grapes, hops, apples and barley. Spirits are distilled and contain no sugar, while beers and wines have various amounts of sugar still remaining. Alcoholic beverages contain almost no nutritional value other than sugar, but they do contain calories. The list below will give you an idea of the approximate calorific value of each drink.
1 pint of draught bitter – 172 kcal (2 units)
330 ml can of premium lager – 196 kcal (2-3 units)
I pint dry cider – 207 kcal (2 units)
1 pint sweet cider – 241 kcal (2 units)
1 brandy, gin run or whiskey – 56 kcal (1 unit)
1 125 ml glass of wine – 85-100 kcal (1 unit)
1 125ml glass of port – 196 kcal (1-2 units)
From the numbers above you can see how easy it could be to rack up a massive amount of excess calories by having a the odd few pints or glasses of wine and before you know it you could have an extra couple of pounds on board!
There’s no reason why you can’t enjoy alcohol in moderation. The Department Of Health recommends up to 4 units a day (or 28 per week) for men and 3 units a day (or 21 units a week) for women as a safe upper limit! The daily limits are intended to discourage binge-drinking which is even more hazardous to health.
What happens to alcohol once in the body?
When we drink alcohol, about 20% is absorbed into the bloodstream through the stomach and the remainder through the small intestine. Most of the alcohol is then broken down in the liver (it cannot be stored as it is toxic). However, the liver can only carry out this job at a rate of approximately 1 unit of alcohol per hour. If you drink more alcohol than this, it is dealt with by a different enzyme system in the liver (MEO – microsomal ethanol oxidising system) to make it less toxic to the body. The more alcohol you drink on a regular basis, the more MEO enzymes are produced to deal with the increased levels of alcohol, which is why you can develop an increased tolerance to alcohol.
As we all know too much alcohol causes hangovers; headache, thirst, vomiting etc. These symptoms are partly due to dehydration and the swelling of the blood vessels in the head. Congeners, substances found mainly in darker alcoholic drinks such as red wine and rum, are also responsible for many of the hangover symptoms.
Research has shown that that alcohol drunk in moderation can reduce the risk of heart disease. The exact reason and mechanism for this is not certain. However scientists believe that this may be true because of the increased HDL cholesterol levels (the protective type of cholesterol in the blood). HDL transports cholesterol back to the liver for excretion, thereby reducing the risk of it sticking to artery walls.
Red wine, in particular, may be especially good for the heart. Studies have shown that drinking up to two glasses a day can lower heart disease by 30-70%. It contains ‘flavanoids’ from the grape skin, which have an antioxidant effect and help protect the LDL cholesterol from ‘free radical’ damage.
Remember prevention is better than cure, so make sure you follow sensible drinking guidelines over the coming festive period. If you feel like you’ve had too much to drink once you’ve returned home from your Christmas party (or parties!), remember to drink plenty of water or even a sports drink before you go to bed, at least 500ml/2-3 units. That way you’ll help increase blood sugar levels and dilute some of that alcohol floating about in your body. Avoid coffee or tea as these will make dehydration worse. Do not attempt to train (or race for that matter!!) with a hangover as you’ll be doing yourself no favours at all.
After all that please remember to enjoy yourself and have a wale of a ball!
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