Binge drinking makes you fat, ugly and miserable

In my work as a public health dietitian, I often feel things are compromised in the light of political correctness...never mind, don't want to shock too many people this week!

Personally I would like to run a campaign that ran along the lines of the title...and here is why.

Alcohol makes you fat
If you drink 1 UK unit of alcohol (assuming no other calories in your drink, which is unlikely), you will consume 56kcal. If you binge drink and consume 30 units over a weekend you will consume nearly 1700kcal...and that is not taking into account the disinhibition that alcohol gives most people over food and the extra fatty and salty food you are likely to consume when drinking.
A deficit of 3500kcal per week leads to a loss of 0.5kg or 1lb per week. So many young women I see drink far in excess of the recommendations and complain about their weight. Those who don't complain about their weight worry me because I wonder what nutrients they are not getting because they are not eating food to balance out for their drink calories.
By reducing alcohol intake you are often reducing the calories that are keeping you just that bit heavier than you would like

Alcohol makes you ugly
Alcohol dehydrates and it make your skin tone bad because of dehydration. You need to drink plenty of fluids to replace the water your body will lose to get rid of the by products of alcohol metabolism. Further, heavy drinking depletes B vitamins and if you are weight controling by eating less food while drinking, then you are running the risk of nutrient deficiencies.
What we eat affects our skin and our health...for good or for bad, and excessive drinking make you ugly, even if it is not through making a fool of yourself on the streets.

Alcohol makes you miserable
Alcohol, for all it has relaxant effects, has strongly depressing effects as well, and once you are aware of it, you can often detect a drop in mood in yourself or others after a drinking session. For those prone to depression and anxiety, drinking might seem like an answer but becomes a vicious cycle of broken sleep and low mood.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a moderation approach to alcohol myself, but I am tired of these long term messages which don't alter young people's perceptions being used to try and win the battle against binge drinking - tell them the things that matter

Women drinkers 'face cancer risk'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7309135.stm

So, if I asked you how many units were in your glass of wine or pint of beer, would you be able to tell me?
A unit of alcohol is based on 8g of alcohol in the UK, 10g of alcohol in Europe and Australasia and 12g in the USA.
So what does this actually mean: Here is a table based on the 8g of alcohol rule

It means by the time you are having a typical modern wine at 12-14% that 120ml glass of wine is closer to 2 units than one...and many of the wine glasses served are 200 - 300ml.

There is mixed evidence for alcohol's health benefits, as it may be cardioprotective, but it is known to increase the risk of a number of cancers. It is a relaxant, but it is also an agent that depresses the central nervous system. It interacts with a great many medications, making them more or less effective. As it is broken down, it's by-products are toxic. And of course there is the hangovers.

It is unknown at what level alcohol consumption affects the unborn child, and while a woman who gets pregnant on a slightly boozy weekend should not be obsessed she has damaged her baby, as a dietitian I discourage alcohol consumption once a pregnancy is known.

Interestingly enough I have known breast fed babies to object to the taste of their mother's milk if Mum has drunk a small amount of alcohol...so a breast-feeding Mum may find she has to remain alcohol free as well.

So am I pro or con?

Coming from NZ, I have had the privelage of growing up with good local wines, so being anti-alcohol is not really a choice, but I encourage moderation.

It is important to remember alcohol is one of the most calorific of nutrients at 30kJ or 7kcal per ml, so weight loss will be helped by reduced intake.

As a public health dietitian, I am not sure these messages about cancer get through to the youngsters who are binge drinkers, so do look out for my next post which will be on

"the real message against binge drinking: alcohol makes you fat, ugly and miserable"

Helen