Part 2 is a conclusion
to the short series on alcohol and a quick look at some of the most
common rumours/misconceptions that get thrown around when it comes to
drinking.
Testosterone levels
Alcohol is portrayed by
the fitness industry as a demonic substance that will immediately
have huge negative effects on your training if a drop of the stuff is
touched. A lot of this is due to the negative effect on testosterone
that is said to happen when alcohol is drank. However this is not the
case, a study conducted found that a small dosage of alcohol (1)
produced a small increase in testosterone over placebo subjects. Also
in a study done on moderate drinkers, (30-40g alcohol/day, or about
4-5 drinks) over 3 weeks the reduction in testosterone for the males
was only 6.8% (2), for females there was no effect. This is from
drinking every day for a long period of time, it goes very much
against the portrayal of alcohol as a testosterone destroying
substance.
Training recovery
Similar to the rumours
portrayed about testosterone, alcohol is also said to greatly impair
training recovery. There is very little evidence to support that
normal amounts of drinking combined with normal levels (not
excessive/overtraining) of training have any correlation with
decreased performance levels (3).The findings of studies mostly
acknowledge that recovery and the protein synthesis that accompanies
it is only greatly effected by chronic drinking (4), although it is
known to have a minute effect on protein synthesis when consumed
regardless.
Eating before
drinking
Many times before you
go out your parents will tell you to eat something or drink some milk
to line your stomach so you don't get as drunk. When alcohol is
ingested, 80% of it is diffused in the small intestine directly into
the blood stream (normal food needs to be digested first before it
can do this, bear in mind only 10% of digestion occurs in the
stomach). When you have food lying in your stomach the valve at the
bottom of your stomach closes which stops the flow of alcohol into
the intestine (5). What this does is greatly delay
the rate of intoxication, but every drop of alcohol still needs to be
processed and detoxified. The negative effect of this being, when
combined with the university culture of getting off your face drunk,
you usually end up drinking more to make up for the slower absorption
which will not only lead to a bigger hangover but also more stress on
the liver!
Real men drink beer!
It's
a common thing amongst British men to be chastised if you're not
drinking beer, there's also a great correlation between levels of
above average body fat and beer drinkers. This is simply because beer
contains many empty calories, as do alcopops, cider, nondiet mixers.
Bear in mind the previous article that went into the metabolism of
alcohol when looking at total calorie values, carbohydrates are 4kcal
per g.
Let's
take a quick look (6) -
Regular
Beer – 13g carbs – 146 calories (52 carb)
Light
Beer – 5g carbs – 100 calories (20 carb)
Cider
– 27g carbs – 200 calories (108 carb)
Bacardi
Breezer – 39g carbs – 220 calories (156 carb)
Diet
Barcardi Breezer – 3g carbs – 96 calories (12 carb)
200ml
coke+25ml vodka – 20g carbs – 135 calories (80 carb)
200ml
diet coke+25 ml vodka – 0g carbs – 55 calories (0 carb)
It's
easy to see how many calories you could be consuming over the course
of the night just from drinking full sugar beer/mixers/alcopops,
stick to diet/light. Contrary to popular belief your testicles won't
shrink, but your gut probably will!
1. Pubmed (2003)
Testosterone increases in men after a low dose of alcohol.
[Online]. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12711931
2.
Pubmed (2004) Effect of moderate alcohol consumption on
plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, testosterone, and estradiol
levels in middle-aged men and postmenopausal women: a diet-controlled
intervention study. [Online].
Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15166654
3.
Vella, L.D, Cameron-Smith, D. (2010) Alcohol, Athletic
Performance and Recovery. Nutrients.
[Online]. Available at http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/2/8/781/htm
4. APS (1998) Inhibition
of muscle protein synthesis by alcohol is associated with modulation
of eIF2B and eIF4E [Online].
Available at http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/277/2/E268.full
5.
VirginiaTech (2012) Alcohol's Effects, Factors that Effect
Intoxication.[Online]. Available
at http://www.alcohol.vt.edu/students/alcoholeffects/intoxfactors.htm
6.
Superskinnyme.com (2012) Calories in Beer.
[Online]. Available at
http://www.superskinnyme.com/calories-in-beer.html
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