How Alcohol Can Effect Your Metabolism

Is alcohol bad for your Metabolism?

Even some of the fittest people like to have an alcoholic drink every now and again. That might be having a nice cool beer watching the game or relaxing in the evening with a glass of wine.

There will be some that drink more than others but whatever your alcohol intake do you ever wonder what impact it has on your metabolism?

If you drink small amounts of alcohol then it has been said that this may increase your metabolism but large amounts can have bad effects on the body.

Read on to find out exactly how alcohol can affect your metabolism.

Alcohol and Nutrition

Alcohol contains only empty calories and has no nutritional value. It can often contribute to malnutrition because the high levels of calories in most alcoholic drinks can account for a large percentage of your daily energy requirements. Even one alcoholic drink a day can contribute to malnutrition.

Your body can’t store alcohol, so it must metabolize it right away. When you drink alcohol, your body makes metabolizing it a priority over all other metabolic processes. Your body sends alcohol to the liver, which produces the enzymes necessary for the oxidation and metabolism of alcohol.

Not only does alcohol not contain any nutrients of its own, but it can impair your body’s ability to absorb nutrients and vitamins from the food you eat. Alcohol irritates your gastrointestinal tract and can damage your body’s ability to absorb nutrients, vitamins, and minerals from the food you eat.

Alcohol and Your Liver

Alcohol is toxic to your liver, and if you drink heavily for a long time you can experience cirrhosis of the liver and death. Heavy drinking over the long term can also impair your liver’s ability to activate vitamins, which contributes to the malnutrition often suffered by long-term alcoholics.

Alcohol and Blood Sugar

Maintaining adequate blood sugar levels is one of the key functions of your metabolism, but when you drink alcohol, maintaining healthy blood sugar levels is one of the first elements of metabolism to be shoved aside in your body’s rush to excrete the toxins as efficiently as possible.

Alcohol inhibits your body’s ability to make glucose and to maintain healthy levels of glucose (or blood sugar) in the blood. Over time, heavy drinkers develop glucose intolerance and can even become diabetic.

Even occasional alcohol consumption can cause dangerous drops in blood sugar levels, especially when consumed on an empty stomach. That’s why drinking alcohol can be very dangerous for diabetics and hypoglycemics.

Alcohol Can Cause Weight Gain

Because your body can’t store alcohol and must metabolize it right away, other metabolic processes suffer.

Your body won’t metabolize sugars and fats as efficiently during the metabolism of alcohol, and drinking heavily can cause your metabolism to slow. This can contribute to weight gain, as can the empty calories found in alcohol.

Source: curejoy