Skipping a meal won’t rid you of those calories especially if you going to consume alcohol instead. Alcohol may be a light fluid but it has a negative effect on not only your waistline, but also your health.
Alcohol has special privileges in the body, it is digested differently and it has first preference when consumed. Under alcohol free circumstances, your body gets its energy from calories in carbohydrates, fats and proteins. These energy suppliers are digested slowly in the stomach. Alcohol changes all that, it needs no digestion. Alcohol molecules are diffused through the stomach wall immediately when present, meaning they have the ability to reach the brain and liver faster than important nutrients. If food is present in the stomach, then alcohol will be absorbed slowly, but it will still be absorbed first. This has an effect on how the nutrients in the body will be used. Carbohydrates and dietary fats will be converted into body fat, which is waiting to be stored away in the body, permanently. With all that, your waistline expands.
Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it encourages water
loss and dehydration. It also assists in unwanted loss of important minerals such as Magnesium, Potassium and Zinc. These minerals help chemical reactions,
fluid balance in the stomach and the rest of the body. Alcohol has no nutritional value; instead it just adds calories to your diet.
Effects of alcoholic substances include, imbalance of acid produced in the stomach, it also induces sleep
but not deep sleep. So with lack of ‘real’ sleep, your body ends up being over worked and not well rested.
Wine on the other hand, is not a bad option.
It is alcohol with some nutritional value. Wine is rich in antioxidants Flavoniod and Phenolics. Flavoniod has properties that prevent blood clots and that prevent plague from being formed in the arteries which go to
the heart.
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Resvertrol (found in grape skin and seeds), increases HDL Cholesterol (good cholesterol) which prevents blood clotting.
Too much of a good thing is not good; wine also increases the risk of getting cancer. Wine could damage sensitive tissues in the upper respiratory tract, which will then initiate the formation of cancer cells.
Still want to have your alcohol and maintain your waistline? Then try this; before your meal have a glass of water, and after your meal you my indulge on some good wine or what ever you have available. Try to limit the amount of alcohol that accompanies your meal to 2 glasses of red wine at the most, which is 200 calories.
Everybody’s system differs, especially the metabolism. A couple followed the same diet for a full week. During the seven days none of them consumed any alcoholic substances and they continued with their daily regular exercise. A week later, the man lost 7 kilograms whilst the woman lost only 1 kilogram.
Do not over indulge on your alcohol as that leads to bad blood lipids being formed and weight gain.
Written By: Ntombifuthi Dali
Dated: 2 September 2008 |
