| I'm trying to lose weight for summer, but there are so many events to go to. Can you tell me what the best alcohol is to drink? When it comes to weight loss, alcohol really isn't your best friend. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram of actual alcohol - this makes it nearly as ‘fattening' as fat. Even without the added mixers alcohol still has calories, yes, even vodka. Since it has calories, this also makes alcohol a ‘fuel' like food, but the body cannot store this type of fuel as it would with carbohydrate or fat. What happens is that your body has to process the alcohol first as energy before anything else - so that kebab that we might tuck into after a night out is going straight to fat stores while your body works it's way through what you had to drink. A big drinking session could actually see you consuming 1-3 days worth of calories - yes this is why you feel so shocking the next morning after a big session, as your liver is working overtime to clear the backlog of ‘fuel' so it can get back to what it does best - processing proper food and nutrients. Alcohol Calories How long to run it off 100ml Baileys 350 35 minutes 350ml Beer 112 12 minutes 200ml bubbles / wine 150 15 minutes Double shot spirits 75 8 minutes Vodka Cruiser 210 21 minutes JD's premix 280 28 minutes It's pretty easy to drink a dozen vodka cruisers with all those yummy flavours - that's a total of 2520 calories!! 2 days worth of food if you're on a weight loss plan. Not only that, these type of drinks are loaded with additives, giving your liver another thing to stress over. To answer the question, the best drink (if I had to choose) would be a single shot vodka with soda and fresh lemon. This type of drink will process faster, because it's got less alcohol and it also has water and lemon, which is nourishing for your liver. Have it in a tall glass and it will last longer. Forget the advice of eating something first to absorb the alcohol, it just doesn't work like that, there's only one thing that will absorb alcohol and that is your body...after that, it will absorb all the food you ate. Food will only slow the rate of alcohol entering your blood stream, which will stop you getting drunk quickly. When partying this season, try to focus on the company not what's going into our mouths, do we really need to drink lots to celebrate the season, or can we simply survive by just being naturally merry? Stacey 2009 |
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