| 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 |
| I'm not eating carbs at night at the moment, but I have a couple of pieces of fruit after dinner and my friend said that it's a carb - is she right? Yes, your friend is right. Carbohydrates are a group of foods made from ‘sugars' (sugars is slang for the type of molecule which makes carbohydrate) Depending on the structure of the molecules and how they're connected they will form a different ‘type of carbohydrate'
The upshot is, that all of these will end up as the same thing in your body - blood glucose, aka blood sugars. When we're trying to lose weight, the theory behind low carb or no carbs at dinner is that when we reduce our blood glucose levels it reduces our insulin release and promotes the release of fat burning hormones. At this time of year, if you need a wee sweet treat after dinner, then strawberries are a great choice - low in calories, lower in ‘sugar' that other fruits. And if you don't feel like a normal dinner, try mixing your chocolate protein powder with a little hot water to make a sauce and dip your strawberries in....tasty and low carb. And just as an aside, flavoured water is also a carb. Stacey 2009 |
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