Side Effects of Alcohol Diagram

Side Effects of Alcohol Consumption

When speaking about diet and nutrition with clients, one of the most common questions people ask me about is alcohol. The first thing I like to go over when discussing this topic is understanding what alcohol does to the body, what happens in your body when it’s consumed, how it affects your overall health, and how it can impact your body composition.

I’ll start by saying that I will not tell anyone to stop drinking altogether. That’s restrictive, and I’m not in favor of creating a laundry list of rules to follow, but rather creating more freedom.

What happens in your body when you drink alcohol?side effects of alcohol

Alcohol is affecting your body in far more ways than simply consuming empty calories.

  • Alcohol is a diuretic and sets you up for dehydration. This, in turn, increases your heart rate, impairs temperature regulation, and accelerates fatigue.
  • Alcohol slows your reaction time, the ability to process information, focus, balance, stamina, and power output. These impairments can last up to 72 hours after consuming alcohol.
  • Alcohol becomes a go-to source of fuel. Your body will use this prior to using more nutrient dense foods. This causes excess storage (a.k.a. fat).
  • Alcohol depresses your immune system and delays healing. You’ll get sick more often and have a harder time bouncing back from illness.
  • Alcohol reduces the oxidation of adipose tissue and stimulates your appetite. This means your body is less efficient at burning fat during aerobic, long duration, steady state cardiovascular work.

My recommendation is to consume no more than 1 to 2 alcoholic drinks at a time and to do that no more than 1 to 2 days per week. More than that is okay on occasion but should not become a regular event. Personally, my go-to is a cold glass of beer. This typically fills me up before I’m screaming for more, which is helpful to keep me from over-indulging. Most days, however, I prefer washing down my meals with a big glass of water and I thank myself for it later.

 

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