Jump to content

Alcohol: only fat has more calories + hunger signal found


allgrownup

Recommended Posts

Why drinking alcohol makes us hungry
https://www.dw.com/en/why-drinking-alcohol-makes-us-hungry/a-37111288

“alcohol activates brain cells that usually promote hunger, researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London say.”

“In mice studies, they identified a type of brain cell that fires in the presence of alcohol. These same brain cells are active when the body is starving, telling us it is high time to consume a lot of high-caloric food.”

“The researchers simulated an "alcoholic weekend" for their lab mice, as they put it. For three days in a row, they injected the mice with an ethanol-water solution. The alcohol amount per day was about the same as what a human would ingest when drinking one and a half bottles of wine a day.

As a consequence, the mice became quite hungry: They ate between 10 percent and 25 percent more food on days on which they'd been given ethanol.

“After three glasses of wine, people ingest about 6,300 extra calories in the following 24 hours, according to a survey conducted by UK market research firm YouGov and commissioned by the weight loss organisation Slimming World.”

“That people get hungry after a night of drinking has puzzled researchers for a long time. After all, alcohol itself is highly energetic: One gram of pure ethanol - the alcohol in beverages - has 7.1 kilocalories. Only fat is richer in energy.”

“As a consequence, alcoholic drinks are doubly bad for losing weight: They have a lot of calories and make you eat even more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It should be noted that the body priorities metabolizing alcohol over any other energy source until the alcohol is 100% metabolized. Thus anything you consume while alcohol is in the bloodstream is stored as body fat. That's the real cause of the freshman 15. It's not always the alcohol itself, it's the late night eating with the alcohol that is packed directly on to the body.

Alcohol has been the fuel behind my wife's gain. Half of her daily calories come from her drinks and beer(s) with dinner. Wine was giving her heartburn so she switched to vodka w/soda. So now we have soda in the house which she also grabs for instead of water pushing her daily calories up even further.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.