Many people are confused about the subject of drinking alcohol. On day you hear that drinking red wine is good for you and the next day you hear that it reduces your lifespan. The recommendations continue to change as more research is done and as it stands now, the news is not good regarding the subject of alcohol. Before covering the detailed findings about alcohol, it would be more than appropriate to address the elephant in the room. It is true that red wine has health benefits. Research on red wine began when it was noticed that the French have low incidents of heart disease although they eat higher levels of saturated fat. The conclusion made was that it was because they drink more red wine and that’s what makes them less vulnerable.
Red wine has a powerful antioxidant polyphenol found in the skin of grapes called resveratrol. Not only is resveratrol good for the hear and a powerful antioxidant, it also has healthy blood sugar lowering effects. It can also be found in chocolate and other purple foods. The process of turning red grapes into wine enhances resveratrol’s affects. White and rose wines don’t have these polyphenols because the grape skin is removed before fermentation. Old recommendations for red wine were that you should drink no more than 1 or 2 glasses of red wine per day but continuing and further in-depth international research has determined that anything exceeding the most modest amount above 100 grams of any alcohol for the entire week could put you at risk.
The health dangers of alcohol far out-weigh it’s benefits and there are many healthier foods offering red wine’s resveratrol benefits, such as red cabbage, red onions and raspberries. The safest level of alcohol you should drink is “none”, and any alcohol consumption above 100 grams (3.75 ounces) per week increases heart disease and cancer risk and lowers your lifespan. The news about alcohol is very sobering. Alcohol is a toxin and when you drink it, your liver must immediately stop all it’s natural processes and metabolize alcohol and get it out of your blood stream. Some of those natural processes include metabolizing body fat (which causes a beer belly) and nutrient absorption from food as it moves through the GI tract. Research has shown that drinking one to two alcoholic drinks more than three times a week raises the risk for all-cause mortality by about 20% with your biggest mortality risk being cancer.
The ugly news regarding alcohol is that alcohol consumption seems to be on an upswing. 13% of Americans participate in high risk drinking, which is defined as 4 or more drinks for women and 5 or more drinks for men at least 1 day per week. Alcohol causes car crashes, violence, suicide, high blood pressure and stroke.
Alcohol is your enemy if your goal is weight loss because It’s more palatable than food and has more calories per gram (7 calories) than carbohydrates and protein. 12 ounces of regular beer is more than 1000 calories which is more than 80% of total recommended daily calorie intake for most women. If going cold turkey is a difficult proposition, you do have options. You can drink light beer instead of regular beer, you could try drinking 1 16 ounce glass of water for every glass of beer, whine or spirit consumed which prevents you from consuming more alcohol and also helps you metabolize alcohol more efficiently or you could try drinking a non-alcoholic substitute.
Comments
