By now most of you have heard the news that drinking wine reduces your risk of developing heart disease. Even the vast majority of physicians are telling their patients that drinking wine is good for them because it will increase HDL or "good cholesterol." I guess that just goes to show you how one study (which was sponsored by the wine industry) can mislead even those that we come to rely on for healthy advice. As absurd as it sounds, the statement "drinking alcohol is good for you," just goes to illustrate just how convoluted and misused information can become. Companies have learned that any study showing any possible benefit, regardless of how remote that benefit may be, can spawn a billion dollar industry if the study's results are marketed or spun correctly. Even if logic dictates the opposite, people will run like buffalos off the side of a cliff and make the absurd true. In other words, it has to be true because you saw it on the evening news and your doctor confirmed it. Let me ask you something. Where do you think your doctor got his information? Let's face it; we're all susceptible to the same misinformation being spun by corporate America. Since it is the holidays and so many of you will be drinking alcohol I thought it might be a good idea to dampen your holiday cheer with some basic truths about drinking and your health. So here are a few reasons why you might want to cut back your alcohol consumption and add a New Year's resolution to drink less. So you don't think I am a total Scrooge I have included better bad choices for alcoholic beverages at the end of the article. That way you can make a better choice that has less calories if you do decide that you still want to belly up to the bar (excuse the pun).
Reason Number 1. (Judgment impairment)
If the video didn't scare you from taking your next sip of vodka than I guess nothing will. We've all been there before. It's funny and painful to watch at the same time. Kinda like eating your favorite cake while scratching your fingernails across the black board at the same time. It just doesn't feel right. Don't ya just love it when it's someone else? One study that looked at the decision making process found that over 70% of the really bad decisions people made during their lifetime were made while under the influence of alcohol. That's not a hard one to believe. Looking back at my own life I probably never would have washed my mom's new car with a Brillo Pad had I not been drinking beer. And its not just the public embarrassment that we have to deal with, sometimes we have to deal with the social consequences too. The idea that we can drive because we only had a few drinks can wreak havoc on your dating life after the judge has rendered you free of your driver's license and you have a DWI on your record. And if public humiliation doesn't stop you maybe you'll decide drinking isn't for you as you search under the couch in order to find your self esteem after a heavy night of drinking.
Reason Number 2. (Sleeping Impairment)
Alcohol disturbs sleeping patterns regardless of how conditioned you are to drinking. Not just one, but hundreds of studies done by very reputable scientists have shown that even small amounts of alcohol can disturb sleep patterns. Disturbed sleep patterns can be defined as increased snoring; alcohol induced Sleep Apnea, frequent waking moments, less REM sleep, reduced oxygenation and heart beat irregularities. For those of you that suffer from arrhythmias or irregular heartbeat, alcohol has been shown to make that pattern worse. In fact, nighttime heart attacks & strokes are most likely to occur after episodes of heavy drinking.
Reason Number 3. (Weight Gain)
Alcohol is almost as calorie dense as fats. It contains a whopping 7 calories per gram! Normal sugar contains only 4 calories a gram. All of alcohol's calories come from a form of pure sugar called ethanol. There's no protein, carbohydrates or fat in your favorite beer or shot glass, but all the calories are coming from another source referred to as alcohol sugar. Alcohol is absorbed like a drug but used as a fuel. When you drink alcohol it goes right into the stomach and is immediately absorbed through the stomach lining. Food can't do that but alcohol can. Alcohol requires no digestion. It floods into the blood stream and causes a huge insulin spike. As the alcohol floats through your blood stream the insulin comes along and allows your cells to take up the calories for immediate energy. As soon as your cells have taken up as much fuel as they can the insulin converts the alcohol into a different form of energy called glycogen. The glycogen is carried by the insulin into muscle and liver where it is stored for future use. And once the glycogen stores are filled to capacity the insulin converts the glycogen into a triglyceride which is then stored into fat cells. But here's where the double vision, um, I mean whammy comes in. Since your cells have been fed by all the alcohol calories, any excess calories from the food you now eat will have to be stored! Whenever you drink alcohol and eat together you end up forcing more calories into fat cells. I can't tell you how many people just won't give up their occasional drinking. They work out hard and assume the working out should offset the excess calories from the alcohol they drink. However what they fail to realize is that alcohol isn't just contributing calories but it is actually altering your metabolism of food in such a way that you become a fat storing machine. To illustrate the impact drinking has on weight loss I told one of my clients to cut out alcohol for one month. Basically she had been stuck at the same weight for a few months. In order to prove to her how much of an impact her drinking was having on her weight she agreed to drop her 2 glasses of wine. She usually drank 4 days a week. The results were so shocking to her that she finally "got it." Just a little drinking can stop you in your tracks when you only have a little bit of weight to lose. Now she fits into her smaller clothes and actually feels better not drinking.
Reason Number 4. (Motivation)
How motivated are you to get up the next morning after drinking to go to the gym and workout? Alcohol can bring about a great mood change while you drink, but the next morning's mood may not be any brighter. Alcohol is part of a group of compounds we group together called depressants. It depresses the brain by decreasing neurotransmitters like serotonin which is a feel good neurotransmitter that elevates your mood and helps you to feel energetic. It can become a vicious cycle. Drinking contributes to depression and when a person gets depressed they tend to rely on more drinking. The bottom line is if you want a bright disposition and more energy alcohol isn't going to get you there.
Reason Number 5. (Cancer)
I find it really interesting that the pundits that encourage people to drink wine to decrease the risk of heart disease didn't mention anything about the cancer causing effects of wine. Alcohol, in general, has a huge impact on decreasing immunity and increasing the risk for certain types of cancer. While everyone is aware of the risk of liver cancer and drinking alcohol most people aren't aware of all the studies that link even casual drinking to cancers of the mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, stomach, colon and rectal cancer. In addition, there are also strong links between alcohol, breast cancer and brain cancer. Don't believe me? All the information is out there. Just Google "alcohol and cancer risk" and you'll end up with over 500,000 links.
Reason Number 6. (Vision Impairment)
The more you drink the better looking I get. Okay, maybe I'm making that one up. Then again, maybe I'm not. The truth is that alcohol really does impair a lot of things. Not just your reflexes, but everything. There's a company that actually makes goggles called Fatal Vision. These goggles are used to vividly demonstrate the concept of visual impairment and the dangers of driving while under the influence of drinking alcohol. The question that we need to ask is how far reaching is the visual impairment from alcohol. While we know alcohol does affect the visual centers of the brain and in turn affects vision, what most don't know is whether or not alcohol can affect our eyes permanently? Because alcohol is highly neuro-toxic it can definitely lead to permanent damage in the brain and therefore lead to a long list of permanent effects.
Reason Number 7 (Memory Impairment)
If you ever woke up after a night of drinking and didn't know where you were or who the person laying naked next to you was, you're not alone. Whew, that makes me glad to know I'm not the only one that has happened to. According to numerous studies on alcohol and its effects on the brain, blackouts are a sign that the brain has incurred enough damage to erase portions of your short term memory. While it's a fact that alcohol damages and kills brain cells, no one can tell you exactly how much damage is being done each time you drink. That's because we're all bio-individuals and no two people are the same. Therefore the negative impact of drinking will be unique to each person. So while general statements can be given for the effects on memory and brain damage one person may experience more damage than another from drinking the exact same amounts.
Reason Number 8 (It's an Anti-Vitamin)
There are some things we ingest that actually deplete vitamins out of our system. Drugs, foods, and even things we drink can all affect the nutritional status of the human body. For example, did you know that birth control pills deplete B-1, B-2, B-6, B-12, Folic Acid, Copper, Zinc and COQ10? It's amazing that one medication can have an effect like that and at the same time someone taking that medication wasn't told by the doctor writing the prescription to add a well rounded daily multivitamin to their diet. Well, alcohol has a huge effect on depleting nutrients from your system and the more you drink the more you need to supplement your diet with additional nutrients. I think a lot of people already know that alcohol depletes water and electrolytes, but most people haven't the slightest clue on just how depleting alcohol really is on just about every nutrient necessary for overall health. So here's the list:
Rather than list each individual B vitamin just understand that alcohol depletes "all" of the B vitamins. It also depletes Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Vitamin E. In addition, alcohol also depletes essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, zinc, potassium and selenium. Deficiencies of vitamin B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, folic acid, and biotin have all been found to cause depression, and alcohol depletes all of these vitamins. Alpert, J. and Fava, M. (1997) found 15 to 38 percent of depressed patients were deficient in folic acid.
Reason Number 9 (Sexual Dysfunction)
The main problems with alcohol seem to stem from the central nervous system which in turn controls sexual functions. Couple that with the effects of alcohol on the brain and in some people it can lead to premature ejaculation to an inability to have an orgasm. Alcohol contributes to an enlarged prostate and can interfere with blood flow. Alcohol affects the hormonal system by decreasing testosterone in both men and women. Just in case you haven't noticed while it can lead to decreased testosterone in men alcohol consumption almost always leads to an inflated ego. That in turn leads to an in-depth discussion about the size of their manhood. Okay, I sorta made that part up. But if you've ever been to Escalante's on a Thursday night don't be surprised if you overhear some drunken guy trying to impress the ladies.
Reason Number 10 (It's Addictive)
I don't think I need to expound too much here. Let's face it, several million members of AA pretty much says it all, don't ya think? If I had to guess it would stand to reason that most alcoholics didn't start off that way. Like everyone else they simply started off by drinking once a week which turned into twice and eventually lead them to where they are today. I've never met anyone that started off with their first drink who then turned to the person sitting next to them and with slurred speech announced "man, I hope I'm a raging alcoholic in ten years." As you witnessed in the video above, drinking just isn't for some people.
Okay, now that I've given you some additional reasons to give up drinking this year, I'm going to allow the codependent in me to come out and suggest what to drink when you do. Yep, you read that last part right. After all that great advice concerning giving up alcohol, now I'm going to give you a list of Better Bad Choices. I figure the vast majority of you are going to do what you want to do and if the opening video didn't sway you away from the bottle then my nonsensical rants won't do much good either. So here are some options for your holiday cheer:
Since Kim is our resident alcoholic nutritionist, she came up with most of these options and she should know. She can be found almost every Thursday night with a drink in one hand and a hat in the other dancing on the bar at Escalante's! (I'm gonna be in BIG trouble for that one folks!)
Sugar Free Margarita
Check out a product call Zilch. It's sold at Smart Meals and comes in small packets that you can carry into any bar. Each packet is sugar free and uses a unique blend of artificial sweeteners that create a great tasting Margarita. Simply dump the packet into your glass of ice, add water and a shot or two of tequila and stir well.
Cherry/Vanilla Diet Vodka
Place a shot of vanilla flavored vodka in a glass with ice. Pour a Diet Cherry Coke to fill the glass.
Cream Soda
Take a shot or two of your favorite vanilla flavored vodka. Place in a blender with a diet cream soda and ice. Blend.
Raspberry Fizz
Place a shot of berry flavored vodka over ice and top with a diet flavored raspberry soda.
In case you can't tell, Kim likes vanilla vodka and basically thinks it tastes great with any type of diet soda. Her personal favorite is the Vanilla vodka and diet orange soda.
If you are a beer drinker:
Choose light beer that contains 90-100 calories per bottle over regular beer that contains 150 calories per bottle.
If you are a wine drinker:
Wine Spritzer
One ounce of wine poured over 3 ounces of club soda. It will take you four drinks to reach the amount of wine found in a normal glass of wine.
