We
get these questions all the time. Is
alcohol good or bad for me? Does alcohol cause me to gain weight? How much can
I drink? Does it matter what kind of alcohol I drink? Here’s the
truth about alcohol…
It
depends. How alcohol affects you, your waistline, and your heart depends on
your genetics, your eating habits, your gender, and how much and how often you
drink.
A
Drink, Defined
The
Dietary Guidelines for Americans define one ‘drink’ as 12 ounces of beer, 5
ounces of wine, or 1½ ounces of 80-proof spirits, like vodka or whisky. Each
serving delivers about 12 to 14 grams of alcohol. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
recommend no more than one to two
drinks per day for men, and no more than one drink per day for women. This is defined as ‘moderate
drinking.’
Health
Benefits of Alcohol
More
than 100 studies show moderate drinking can reduce the risk of heart attack,
stroke, vascular disease, sudden cardiac death, and death from all
cardiovascular causes by 25 to 40 percent. Moderate amounts of alcohol raise
levels of HDL (good) cholesterol, which helps protect against heart disease,
improves insulin sensitivity, and helps prevent blood clots which can cause
heart attacks and strokes. Studies also show moderate alcohol consumption can
also help prevent gallstones and type 2 diabetes.
Your
genes and your age impact the benefits of alcohol on your health.
The
social and psychological impact of alcohol may also play a role in its health
benefits. A drink before a meal can improve digestion. A drink at the end of a busy day can be relaxing
and help to relieve stress. And meeting friends for a drink helps to reinforce
connection and community, which has been shown to increase longevity.
Does
the Type of Alcohol Matter?
Research
suggests that all types of alcohol—wine, beer or spirits—have similar health
effects. Red wine may hold an additional benefit, because it contains
phytochemicals that help prevent blood clots, relax blood vessel walls, and
prevent plaques in arteries.
Alcohol
can be Harmful
Heavy
drinking (loosely defined as more than four drinks at a time) can be harmful to
both your body and your life. Heavy
drinking can cause inflammation and/or scarring of the liver, increase blood pressure
and damage heart muscle, and has been linked to cancer of the mouth, pharynx,
larynx, esophagus, breast, and colon and rectum in men, and liver, colorectal
and breast cancer in women. The risk is multiplied for drinkers who also smoke
tobacco.
Women
with a family history of breast cancer should consider the risks of a daily
drink. Studies show that women who have two or more drinks a day are at higher
risk for developing breast cancer. Adequate daily intake of folate (at least
600 micrograms a day) appears to reduce this risk.
Alcohol
interacts in potentially dangerous ways with a variety of medications,
including acetaminophen, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, painkillers, and
sedatives. It can also disrupt sleep. Alcohol
abuse can also wreak havoc on social and family life. It is addictive, especially for people with a
family history of alcoholism. Obviously,
alcohol also clouds judgment. One in three cases of violent crime is related to
alcohol and more than 16,000 people die each year in alcohol-related automobile
accidents.
Alcohol
and Weight
The
relationship between alcohol and weight is not entirely clear.
Alcohol
does contain calories. However, depending upon our habits and genetics, our
bodies may handle those calories differently.
Research suggests moderate drinkers gain less weight and have a smaller
waist size than non-drinkers. The Nurses' Health Study found women who drank
between two and four drinks a day had a lower body mass index and seemed to eat
fewer carbohydrates, particularly in the form of candy, than nondrinkers or
heavy drinkers. Some studies suggest that women who drink alcohol eat fewer
sweet foods, possibly because alcohol stimulates the same pleasure center in
the brain as sweets. The affect doesn’t seem to be the same in men.
Researchers
suspect that regular, moderate drinkers (one or two drinks per day) may adjust
their metabolism to burn the extra calories from the alcohol without gaining
weight. This effect is not seen in those who ‘binge drink’ once or twice a
week.
However,
studies also show that both men and women make unhealthier food choices when
they drink, so beware of the food choices you make with your cocktail. Also, while the calories from alcohol may or
may not contribute to weight gain, the sugar in sweet alcoholic drinks—like a
margarita or rum and coke—is metabolized as extra calories.
Recommendations
- There are no
one-size-fits-all recommendations for alcohol consumption. Since each
person is different, with different medical histories, genetics and
habits, the question of whether or not to drink alcohol is individual. If
you have a history of alcoholism in your family, you should carefully
weigh the risks of drinking.
- If you are unable to drink
moderately (one drink per day for women, two for men), the risks outweigh
the benefits.
- If you are at risk of
heart disease, a daily alcoholic drink could reduce the risk of developing
heart disease.
- If you have low HDL (good)
cholesterol that won’t increase with diet and exercise, moderate drinking
might help to increase HDL cholesterol.
- Ten times more women die
each year from heart disease than from breast cancer. So, if you are at risk for heart disease,
the benefits of a daily drink must be balanced against the increase in
risk of breast cancer. If you already drink alcohol or plan to begin, keep
it moderate—no more than one drink a day—and make sure you get at least
600 micrograms of folate a day.
- If you drink daily, both
men and women should make sure they get 600 micrograms of folate per day,
either through food or a supplement of folic acid. Dietary sources of folate include dark
greens (like spinach and kale), nuts, beans, peas, dairy products, poultry
and meat, eggs
References
