Alcohol's Big Fat Secret

Here in college, I am near large amounts of alcohol in every direction.  Each night I hear those stumble in who've had a little too much, or get the pleasure of seeing someone's roommate completely plastered, laying in bed, face covered in marker and flour.  Usually I just sigh and go on about my way, as there isn't much I could say that would stop such occurrences,  It's just a way of life around here, books and booze.

We all have heard alcohol is dangerous.  We've all heard the forboding statistics echoing off the walls of every educated establishment to every person of relative youth.  "Don't drink, you'll die, one way or another."  Of course alcohol is dangerous!  It's a poison!  Your body doesn't really enjoy poison too much, and works very hard to filter it out of your system.  That's what your liver is for, and without it you wouldn't be walking around today, that's for sure.  People who drink work their livers extremely hard, hence they are more at risk for liver disease, sclerosis, and all that other fun stuff.  Not to mention all the impairment risks, which I bet you've heard before a million times.  I don't plan on rattling them all off again to you, that's not what I intended to do with this article.

In reality, there's another little caveat related to alcohol consumption that is rarely discussed.  In fact, if this fact was more widely known, I bet drinking in excess would most likely decrease as a whole.  The truth is, ALCOHOL IS FATTENING!!!!  In fact, the calories in alcohol add up quite quickly, especially on party night.  Let's examine the nutrition of several alcoholic drinks, and discuss why each one could easily take your carefully planned diet and flip it on its head.  

Beer:  Of any alcohol, I think this drink is most commonly associated with those who are overweight.  I mean come on, have you seen some of the "beer bellies" out there these days?  Ridiculous!  The average beer has between 100-200 calories per drink (12 fl.oz), and in any sort of drinking game that can add up fast.  After 3 or 4 beers, you're could be almost a third of your way to a new pound of fat on your midsection (one pound of fat is approximately 3500 calories.)  And many people with heavy alcohol tolerances don't stop there.  I regularly hear of 10 beer sessions.  What's the record I've heard of?  it was somewhere between 22 and 28 in one night, I don't remember exactly.  But even on the low end of the spectrum, if they were average 150 calorie beers, that's 3300 calories.  Amazing.  

Beer can also have large amounts of simple carbohydrates (killers in the fat gain department), with some containing up to 15 grams of carbs per beer.  It varies greatly though, and some beer can have as little as 3 grams per 12 fl.oz.  Read that nutritional label!

Wine:  This drink is one that you can usually drink a good bit of, similar to beer.  Its alcohol content usually isn't as "aggressive," and can keep you drinking for quite a few hours.  The calories start to add up though, more than you might initially believe considering how light wine seems to be.  Red Wine has around 130 calories per 5 fl.oz (the average serving size).  White wine is about the same, with about 120 calories per 5 fl.oz.

These figures may not seem like much, but you have to remember that alcohol goes on top of everything else.  You have wine with dinner, and usually a fancy dinner at that.  Fancy dinners contain foods covered in fancy sauces, which are usually very delicious due to the high saturated fat content (our bodies love the taste of fat.  Just think about peanut butter, isn't it great how smooth and delicious it tastes?  That's the fat!)  Another 300 calories on top of an already unhealthy meal will only throw you from the frying pan into the fire.  Watch those calories!

Shots:  These little suckers are dangerous.  Not only do they contain about the same amount of alcohol as an entire beer, they also have quite a few calories per serving.  70 proof liquor has about 85 calories per shot.  80 proof is around 100 calories per shot.  90 proof is 115 calories per shot.  And 100 proof has a whopping 130 calories per shot!  And honestly, who drinks just one shot?  

After 4 or 5 shots (By the way that's a LOT of alcohol), you've consumed around 400-500 calories.  Add that on top of a day of eating, and you can kiss those weight loss goals goodbye.  Many people don't consider shots to have that many calories because, well look at them, they're tiny!  How could there possibly be any sort of real caloric value to that little bit of happy juice?  Believe me, those calories are there, and in a night of partying, they will add up quickly.

Mixed Drinks:  These drinks are a little harder to judge in terms of nutritional information because well, they're MIXED!  But I can give you a few figures just to get your mind working a little:

Margarita: 150-210 calories

Pinacolada: 250-300 calories

Long Island Iced Tea: 200-230 calories

Country Cocktail (with JD): 150-200 calories

Chances are, the "foofier" and more grandeur that drink of yours is, the more calories it will contain (not to mention all that salt on the rim of a margarita glass).  These drinks aren't generally meant to get you drunk in one straight shot either (although there are exceptions), so more than likely you'll be able to go back and buy another.  That's what bars and restaurants are best at, keeping you drinking, so they get to take as much of your money as possible.  After 4 mixed drinks, you could have taken in as many as 1000 calories.  And that's on top of that veal or goose that's taking such a long time in the kitchen!  Talk about a fat happy meal.

And here's one more little fact that you should take into account when drinking alcohol.  IT STIMULATES YOUR APPETITE!  That's right, when you drink alcohol, you're very likely to eat much more than you would have initially.  That's another reason most restaurants love to sell you alcohol with dinner.  Have you ever heard of the munchies?  You associate with pot right?  Well it can just as easily be applied to alcohol.  Believe me I see plenty of the "drunk munchies" around here every single weekend.

Bottom Line: So there you have it.  Not only can alcohol be dangerous, but even in small amounts it is VERY calorie significant.  I'm not saying you can't enjoy alcohol (responsibly), but just make sure you know what you're consuming.  It's not water, and can really throw a diet into the garbage if not taken into account.

Know your limits, count your calories, and as always, good luck! (and stay safe, my fellow college students.) 

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Killer Sweetness

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Processed food ISN'T GOOD FOR YOU.  Even some who eat it realize this.  Lean Cuisine, Ramen, TV dinners, powdered donuts, whatever name it goes by, it's packed with chemicals, sugar, salt, and other nasty things that'll get you heavy quite quickly.  The devil is in the ingredients, and there are a few that can cause some real damage to your body.  The one I am particularly wary of these days is High Fructose Corn Syrup, or HFCS for short.  It's a sweetening agent used in more foods than you or I could think of off the tops of our heads.  It's EVERYWHERE!  And the more processed a food is, the more likely that it contains this devilish little chemical.  But what exactly is this stuff, and why is it so bad?

HFCS, as stated above, is a sweetening agent.  More specifically, it's a replacement for sucrose, or natural sugar.  It achieves the same sort of taste as sucrose, making foods sweet and yummy without needing overly huge amounts of the stuff.  But why do companies use it, when they could just use sucrose instead?  Well, what do most large scale corporations want to cut down on drastically at every little twist and turn in their manufacturing, shipping, and marketing processes?  Hmmmm...COST perhaps?  Guess what!  Sucrose gets really expensive here in the US because of all the import costs associated with it.  HFCS is by far the cheaper option, and therefore is used in thousands of places instead of sucrose.  And in all honesty, although I'm not big on sugar, pure sucrose is far healthier than this stuff is.

It's interesting too, because in general sucrose and HFCS aren't that far off from each other chemically.  They are both composed of two different sugars, glucose and fructose.  Sucrose is 50-50 glucose and fructose, where as HFCS is 58% fructose and 42% glucose.  Surprisingly though this seemingly insignificant percentage of difference adds up big time.  Here's a quote from Livestrong.com about an animal test confirming what we've all been considering:  

"For a long time, researchers debated whether high fructose corn syrup was different from other sweeteners in its effects on human health. To test this assertion, a group of researchers from Princeton University fed rats a diet high in HFCS. They published their results in a 2010 issue of the journal "Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior." In the study, the HFCS caused abnormal increases of body fat, especially in the abdomen, and circulating levels of triglycerides in the blood. 

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/546302-high-fructose-corn-syrup-hardening-of-the-arteries/#ixzz1dmS7BHRR"

This extra body fat is caused by the larger percentage of fructose in the chemical, which can only be processed by the liver.  In fact, the fructose in HFCS can bypass the digestive process that normally breaks down other, similar sugars, and goes straight to the liver.  This is because unlike in sucrose, where fructose and glucose are bonded together, in HFCS they are free from each other and therefore can be readily absorbed into the bloodstream with no digestion needed.  The fructose gets processed into triglycerides, which in layman's terms means they accumulate as fat.  The more fructose, in this case, the more fat.  If you weren't convinced by an animal study (which I rarely am, considering rats and humans are very different creatures), here's another study that was done on humans, from alternet.org:  

"In a study conducted by University of California researchers, 16 volunteers were given a strictly controlled diet including very high levels of fructose. Another group was given the same diet but with high levels of glucose (regular sugar) replacing the fructose. Over 10 weeks, the volunteers that were given fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. The control group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems."

Such fast changes in ten weeks?  WOW!

  Here are a few more reasons why you should try to avoid HFCS whenever possible:

Hardening of the arteries:  Because of the excess triglycerides HFCS helps to produce, your artery walls can begin to harden from excess fat.  This can lead to heart disease, something you DO NOT WANT in older (or younger) age.  

Obesity:  As is evidenced by what has already been said so far, HFCS is one of the largest links to obesity out there in modern society.  The evidence keeps pouring in that those who consume more food and drink containing HFCS have much larger risks of becoming obese.  In fact as HFCS was introduced into mainstream processed foods back in the 70's, its increased usage has almost exactly mirrored the increase in obese individuals.  Because the unbonded fructose in HFCS is almost immediately absorbed into the bloodstream (with no other digestive processes), it's easy to see why it can cause so much fat gain so quickly.  

Keeps You Hungry:  HFCS plays another role in weight gain, this one much more devious, as you might not even know it's happening.  Our body has a few well designed "full" triggers in it that help us to realize when we've eaten enough for our metabolic needs.  One such trigger is called ghrelin, an enzyme secreted by the stomach to cause hunger.  In normal food consumption, ghrelin is eventually neutralized or "shut off" in order to let us know that we're full.  However HFCS does not deactivate ghrelin, and therefore can prevent us from knowing when we've eaten enough.  That's not good, especially on a diet.  

Other health effects related to HFCS include: Pancreatic cancer, kidney stones, and hair loss.  It's not something you want to consume much of, that's for sure.

Here's a final word of warning.  HFCS can hide in foods you might not expect, and may be doing more damage than you think.  Here's a few foods that contain HFCS that may have slipped under your radar:

Bread:  Many breads, even the 100% whole wheat variations, contain HFCS.  These slices can sabotage your otherwise healthy sandwhich.  The solution?  Spend a little extra time in the grocery store and read the ingredients on a few different brands.  Some are made with NO ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS, and these are the brands you should buy.  Trust me, that little extra time will help bigtime.

Canned/Bottled Drinks:  Yup, you guessed it.  Soda, and other main stream energy drinks usually have HFCS in their ingredients.  They'll pull you in with flashy colors and claims of electrolyte replenishment, but believe me they won't do you much good.  Again, read the ingredients, and choose wisely.  Usually nothing beats good ol' water.  

Cereal:  Even your breakfast may be sabotaged!  Many Kelloggs products contain HFCS, including Raisin Bran and Rice Krispies, two very famous breakfast cereals.  However many bran-flake variations include HFCS as well, so don't think you're off the hook just because you're getting high fiber.  READ THE INGREDIENTS!!!

Crackers:  Nabisco Wheat Thins contain a good amount of HFCS, which is unforunate because I love the things.  Watch your consumption of little appetizer type foods, as they can usually add up quickly, and if they contain the bad stuff then you're in for some trouble with your diet.  I'll just keep saying it I guess, to hammer it through your head.  Read....the...ingredients......PLEASE.  

Sauces/Salad Dresssings:  Last but not least, many popular sauces contain HFCS, including A1 steak sauce.    Also, salad dressings are quite famous for large amounts of HFCS, another reason to keep your salad dry (read my healthy salad article here:  ).  And you know what I'm going to say next.  In fact, I'm not even going to say it.  Just do it.  Please.  

Here's a list of many, many, MANY foods that contain HFCS.  The list is by no means complete, but gives a good idea of how this artificial sweetener has infiltrated our diets:  http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2005/06/09/foods_and_products_containing_high_fruct

Bottom Line:  HFCS might be hard to remove from your diet completely.  That's ok, because accepting it's there and making an effort to avoid it will make a HUGE difference.  Just try to get a good majority of it out of your mouth, and I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised by the difference.  You'll have done your body a world of good.  

READ THE INGREDIENTS....and good luck!!!!

A few references:  

http://www.alternet.org/story/144816/high_fructose_corn_syrup_proven_to_cause_human_obesity

http://www.livestrong.com/high-fructose-corn-syrup/

http://www.ajcn.org/content/79/4/537.full

http://www.healthybrainforlife.com/articles/healthy-food/high-fructose-corn-syrup-a-sweetner-to-avoid