ALCOHOL - THE CASE AGAINST!

One of the biggest culprits of an increased calorie intake is alcohol. You’ll see what I mean after you’ve read this short scenario.

I know a guy who is quite sporty and who represents his local athletics club. He had heard the dietary advice on the TV and knows that the recommended daily calorie intake for an adult (2500 for men and 2000 for women) and as a consequence has eaten healthily through the day. ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,’ he thinks to himself and decides to meet his friends for a drink. He drinks 5 pints of beer while socialising and as he leaves, realizing that he’s feeling a little hungry he buys a medium deep pan pizza from a well known restaurant chain; he eats it easily and goes to bed quite satisfied. Just lately he has been finding it harder to train at the athletics club and to keep his weight in check, finding himself spending more time in front of the TV when he would normally be out training.

Does this sound a bit like you? It sounds a lot like me because it was me.

This is what is happening to the body in this scenario. Everything is pretty much OK until he goes out and drinks beer with his friends. Many of the most popular beers can work out to be up to 220 calories per pint, so he amasses an additional 1100 calories with absolutely no nutritional benefit. He feels hungry after drinking because alcohol uses up his blood sugar and his body tries to redress the balance by taking in food. The pizza calorie count comes in at around 1070 and so in roughly a 3 hour period he has very nearly doubled the recommended daily intake. This is not a huge problem if it only happens occasionally, but if it sounds like a normal night out for you, it may be the root of your problems.

Alcohol is a double edged sword due to the fact that it puts a great strain on your liver which is the organ essential for the proper digestion and absorption of vitamins and minerals. The damaging effect of too much alcohol renders your liver incapable of, or at the very least restricted in, its capacity to digest and absorb those essential vitamins and minerals we need.

Moderation is the key to all areas of indulgence, not only for alcohol. Let’s look at it from another perspective. If you have a headache you might take something such as aspirin or ibuprofen in the recommended dosage stated by the manufacturer. You wouldn’t take more than the stated dose because you know that it would be harmful to do so. A glass of red wine is widely known as being good for you, but to drink the whole bottle is just the same as overdosing with the aspirin. Just because the consumption of alcohol is socially accepted in many societies does not absolve it of its damaging nature when taken in excess.

Although I have counted calories and slapped the wrists of social drinkers, I am not about to tell you that you can’t eat things you enjoy or not to drink alcohol. I enjoy my food and drink, but have learned that I don’t need to cut anything out completely (that would be very dull and certainly not the message I’m trying to share) but just to be sensible about it.