I don't think there's anyone out there that thinks that alcohol is a health supplement. That said, I think that people might not fully understand the degree to which it negatively effects their health. Today I want to underline the negative health effects of alcohol, but also provide some solutions.
The Achilles Heel of your Fitness Goals
Calories
A 5oz glass of wine (most people aren't just drinking 5oz when they have a glass though) has about 123 calories. Let's say that you're having 3 glasses per week and let's say that they are actually only 5oz. That's about 369 calories per week, about 1,476 calories a month, and 19,188 calories per year. That's the caloric equivalent of 5lbs a year. How many of you have seen your weight creep up by that each year?
A typical beer has about 150 calories. Let's say that you average 5 beers a week. That's 750 calories a week, 3,000 calories a month, and 39,000 calories a year! About 11lbs worth of calories.
Both of those are considered "moderate alcohol consumption" by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. But holy crap does that add up!
Sleep
A common reason for drinking that I hear is that it helps people fall asleep. A funny analogy that I heard for this was, "You might be unconscious for 12 hours if you got smashed in the head with a baseball bat, but that doesn't make it good for you!"
Yes, alcohol consumption might help you to relax and fall asleep more easily, but the quality of that sleep is severely negatively affected! There are numerous studies on this topic and I often hear from people who use sleep tracking devices that they see a huge drop in their sleep quality from even one drink before bed.
Cancer
Lastly, I think that we simply forget that alcohol is proven to cause cancer! We hear about a study that says that Aspartame gets rated as "Possibly Carcinogenic" to humans (this rating means that there is limited evidence for this in humans and less than sufficient evidence in animal studies) and we swear off diet soda, yet alcohol is rated as "Carcinogenic to Humans" (this rating means that there is sufficient evidence to prove that it causes cancer in humans) and we keep on drinking.
So in short, alcohol is adding to our waistlines, damaging our sleep, and known to cause cancer!
Minimizing Consumption
I'll be brief here in trying to provide a couple of ways to minimize your alcohol consumption.
1. A Dry Month
For many people, alcohol is simply a habit that they don't even think about. Taking a month completely away from drinking alcohol can be a great way of breaking this habit! Maybe you do go back to drinking afterwards, but you'll likely find that you don't need it quite as often as you were consuming it before.
2. Choosing one meal/week to drink with.
Something I often suggest to my nutrition coaching clients is to pick just 1 meal per week to drink with. That could be the same meal each week or they could pick it depending on their social calendar. Having only one opportunity to indulge each week is a great way to limit consumption.
Alcohol Alternatives
Lastly, here's some alternatives to alcohol that cut out the negatives while still giving you some of the "positives" that you crave.
1. NA alternatives.
There are non-alcoholic alternatives to nearly every drink nowadays. If you're a person who genuinely enjoys the taste of their drinks, you can switch to one of these and still enjoy the flavors that you're missing. They are significantly lower in calories, don't affect your sleep and don't cause cancer!
2. Mushrooms, CBD, and other stuff.
Maybe it's less about the flavor and more about the buzz that alcohol gives you (or the sleepy feeling!). There are a number of different faux alcohol products that you can either take as a pill or as a tincture to mix into non-alcoholic beverages to mimic some of the effects of alcohol. These products are at least health neutral (often low or non-calorie with no effect on sleep and certainly non cancer-causing) or possibly even health promoting.
My goal in writing these newsletters is to inform people about different health and wellness topics. Given that, it seemed foolish to not highlight something that I quite frequently see being the Achilles heel of peoples fitness goals.
I hope this helps!
-Sean
