| Let’s start with this: there are ALL ALCOHOLIC DRINKS ARE BAD FOR YOU. The old “glass of red wine is good for the heart, etc” was BS. The reality is that alcohol is a poison, and it is toxic at very low doses when compared to other exogenous molecules.
The truth is that the heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, gut and brain are all negatively affected by ingesting alcohol. But one of the absolute worst effects it has is on our metabolism. Drinking messes with our liver and pancreases ability to regulate insulin. The result is that our bodies can’t metabolize stored fat or regulate blood sugar properly while booze is in our blood stream, which makes our A1C and blood glucose start looking like type 2 diabetics very quickly, which leads to a host of problems like weight gain and fatty acid storage in our arteries.
The other reality is that getting a little tipsy has been part of society for over 13,000 years, and it’s not going anywhere.
So this week, we wanted to rank drink choices (based on the research) from least disruptive to most disruptive for your blood sugar and metabolism.
Least Disruptive: Clear spirits either neat or with soda water. There is no sugar, no fructose load, your liver clears the ethanol (gasoline) without an insulin spike (Invest, 1988).
Moderately Disruptive: Dry wine and light beer. These two will blunt your insulin sensitivity, trigger LPS-driven inflammation – they mess with your gut and can cause cirrhosis (Purohit et al., 2008), but they are not as bad as…
Maximally Disruptive: Mixed drinks, fancy cocktails, frozen drinks, craft beer. The combo of fructose plus alcohol hits your liver immediately, spikes triglyceride production(excess fat created by the liver), and makes you more insulin resistant. The best part is that these effects are compounded with each drink (Monte et al., 2012; Vornoli, 2024).
The reality is that most of us (especially me) enjoy a drink socially or at the end of a long week, but when it comes to health, not all drinks are created equal; they exist on a spectrum. The smart choice for long-term health is to opt for clear spirits.
Knowledge like this is a part of the custom nutrition strategies that our dietitian, Shawn Pitcher, helps people with. He can help you stay on the path even when work involves drinks. He is amazing at helping build custom plans that include work trips, birthdays and long day drinks. If you are interested in learning more about how Shawn can help you get a head in the nutrition game book a free phone consultation at the link below.
https://asr.noterro.com/book-online/service/75308/Initial-Nutrition-Phone-Consultation |
