What too Much Alcohol can do to your Health

Business | August 22, 2018, Wednesday // 17:35
Bulgaria: What too Much Alcohol can do to your Health

Worldwide, each person 15 years and older consumes 13.5 grams of pure alcohol per day, according to the World Health Organization. Considering that nearly half of the world doesn't drink at all, that leaves the other half drinking up their share.

While the majority of the world drinks liquor, Americans prefer beer. The Beverage Marketing Corp. tracks these things: In 2017, Americans guzzled about 27 gallons of beer (or 216 pints), 2.6 gallons of wine and 2.2 gallons of spirits per drinking-age adult.

But Americans are lightweights in any worldwide drinking game, based on numbers from the World Health Organization. The Eastern European countries of Lithuania, Belarus, Czechia (the Czech Republic), Croatia and Bulgaria drink us under the table.

In fact, measuring liters drunk by anyone over 15, the US ranks 36th in the category of most sloshed nation; Austria comes in sixth; France is ninth (more wine) and Ireland 15th (yes, they drink more beer), while the UK ranks 18th.

Who drinks the least in the world? The Arab nations of the Middle East.

With all this boozing going on, just what damage does alcohol do to your health? Let's explore what science says are the downsides of having a tipple or two.

Counting calories

Even if you aren't watching your waistline, you might be shocked at the number of empty calories you can easily consume during happy hour.

Calories are typically defined by a "standard" drink. In the US, that's about 0.6 fluid ounces or 14 grams of pure alcohol, which differs depending on the type of adult beverage you consume.

For example, a standard drink of beer is one 12-ounce can (355 milliliters). For malt liquor, it's 8 to 9 fluid ounces (251 milliliters). A standard drink of red or white wine is about 5 fluid ounces (148 milliliters).

What's considered a standard drink continues to go down as the alcohol content goes up. But what if that changes? Let's use beer as an example.

It used to be that light beer came in around 100 calories while regular beer averaged 153 calories per 12-fluid ounce can or bottle -- that's the same as two or three Oreo cookies.

But beer calories depend on both alcohol content and carbohydrate level. So if you're a fan of today's popular craft beers, which often have extra carbs and higher alcohol content, you could easily face a calorie land mine in every can. Let's say you chose a highly ranked IPA, such as Sierra Nevada Bigfoot (9.6% alcohol) or Narwhal (10.2% alcohol), and you've downed a whopping 318 to 344 calories, about as much as a McDonald's cheeseburger. Did you drink just one?

If you pour correctly, white wine is about 120 calories per 5 fluid ounces, and red is 125. If you fill your glass to the brim, that might easily double.

Liquor? Gin, rum, vodka, tequila and whiskey cost you 97 calories per 1.5 fluid ounces, but that's without mixers. An average margarita will cost you 168 calories while a pina colada weighs in at a whopping 490 calories, about the same as a McDonald's Quarter Pounder.

A 2013 study in the US found that calorie intake went up on drinking days compared with non-drinking days, mostly due to alcohol: Men took in 433 extra calories, while women added 299 calories.

But alcohol can also affect our self-control, which can lead to overeating. A 1999 study found that people ate more when they had an aperitif before dinner than if they abstained.

Take heart. If you're a light to moderate drinker, meaning you stick to US guidelines of one "standard" drink a day for women and two for men, studies have shown that you aren't guaranteed to gain weight over time -- especially if you live an overall healthy lifestyle.

For example, a 2002 study of almost 25,000 Finnish men and women over five-year intervals found that moderate alcohol consumption, combined with a physically active lifestyle, no smoking and healthy food choices, "maximizes the chances of having a normal weight."

However, it appears that heavy drinking and binge drinking could be linked to obesity. And that's a problem. The numbers of binge drinkers -- defined as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women within a couple of hours at least once a month -- has been rising in the United States.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says one in six adultsbinge about four times a month, downing about eight drinks in each binge.

In the UK, where binge drinking is defined as "drinking lots of alcohol in a short space of time or drinking to get drunk," a 2016 national survey found 2.5 million people admitted to binge drinking in the last week.

Alcohol, of course, has no nutritional value and contains 7 calories per gram -- more than protein and even carbs, which both have 4 calories. Fat has 9 calories per gram.

All those empty alcohol calories have to end up somewhere.

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