staying healthy in the fast laneAlcohol
Alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced risk in heart
disease at approximately one drink in females and two drinks in
males, per day.^1 In Western culture, you have to be careful that you
don’t use this as an excuse to consume excess calories! A gram of
alcohol is usually seven calories (fat = 9 cal; protein = 4 cal; carb
= 4 cal). Then there are the added calories from how the alcohol
is made and what you mix it with. Alcohol is a relatively “empty”
calorie source.
Yes, there is resveratrol, a potent antioxidant and popular “anti-
aging” compound found in red wine, and compounds in hops from
beer that may improve insulin resistance or reduce menopausal
symptoms, but I wouldn’t call alcohol a nutrient-dense food.
The way we use alcohol in our busy, modern lives needs a bit
of caution. We usually use it to unwind or de-stress at the end of a
hectic day. I would have no problem with this if you were lean and
had finished thirty to sixty minutes of aerobic exercise and some
strength and flexibility exercise as well. This would not be a prob-
lem either if you were having a “light” soup and salad or a small
meal of lean animal protein, a good starch, and lots of vegetables in
the evening at about five o’clock. That is not most people’s reality.
Americans often eat late (seven to nine o’clock at night after a
very stressful day), have a few drinks, eat a big, calorie-rich meal,
and veg out in front of the television. Yes, this is a generalization,
but you get the idea. We are throwing alcohol on top of a stressful
day, where most people weren’t physically active, and we are mix-
ing it with a late dinner of excess calories.
What I see in practice is that when patients who have been
regular daily consumers cut out alcohol, there is usually an easy
five- to ten-pound weight loss that first month without trying.
Maybe some of that is the food that goes along with the alcohol
consumption? I don’t know.
Drinking in the evening, though it may relax you, really can
cause problems with lethargy, fatigue, or “fogginess” that evening
and the next morning as well. If I had a dollar for every time some-