Eden Recovery explains the shocking way alcohol contributes to weight gain.
We’ve all been there! Staring blankly into the mirror searching for answers as to why you suddenly see Judy with the big booty staring back at you. ”But I haven’t been eating more?” “What about all the exercise I’ve been doing? And then it dawns on you… all those glasses of wine at dinner recently must be contributing to your larger self.
According to Eden Recovery Centre, people who consider themselves average wine drinkers consume an excess of 2000 calories per month – the equivalent of 141 ice creams a year. In fact, for adults who drink, alcohol alone accounts for a whopping ten per cent of the calories they consume.
Because alcohol is made from sugar or starch, it contains lots of calories – seven calories a gram in fact, almost as much as fat. At Eden Recovery Centre we reiterate that calories from alcohol are ’empty calories’, this means they have no nutritional value. Most alcoholic drinks contain traces of vitamins and minerals, but not usually in amounts that make any significant contribution to our diet.
Drinking alcohol also reduces the amount of fat your body burns for energy. While we can store nutrients, protein, carbohydrates, and fat in our bodies, we can’t store alcohol. So our systems want to get rid of it, and doing so takes priority. All of the other processes that should be taking place (including absorbing nutrients and burning fat) are interrupted.
What’s the case with abusive drinking?
We at Eden are asked this question a lot and scientists have long noted that alcoholics aren’t as overweight as you’d expect, given the staggering number of calories they consume in alcohol. Metabolic studies of chronic alcohol abusers have turned up something interesting: If you drink enough, you pass a threshold after which a certain portion of your alcohol calories are “free.”
Eden Recovery Centre explains that basically, you do so much damage to your liver that it can’t efficiently process alcohol anymore and you “waste” the calories or store them in your liver, giving yourself a disease called fatty liver, which can lead to cirrhosis and death if you keep at it.
If you are concerned that your drinking is turning into a problem and that you are constantly worried about your weight and your health – please get in touch with us. For information on Eden Recovery Centre’s Treatment Programmes and advice, please feel free to contact the Eden Recovery Centre. You can depend on full discretion.