Do you prefer to drink your calories?
How many calories do you consume daily? How many do you consume through alcohol? Agave Road Trip’s Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Ryan Aycock, tells us about the philosophy, “I’d prefer to drink my calories.” And he tells us about all the reasons that is wrong. It’s another uplifting Cocktail MD episode of Agave Road Trip!
Agave Road Trip is a critically acclaimed, award-winning podcast that helps gringx bartenders better understand agave, agave spirits, and rural Mexico. It’s hosted by Lou Bank and Chava Periban.
Episode Notes
Check out Simply Cocktails by Dr. Ryan Aycock, the Cocktail MD!
And if you lean toward drinking your calories, maybe consider checking out This Naked Mind, or another resource to help you find balance.
A calorie is a unit energy that comes from food. We all need calories—about 2000 of them per day. (Though there’s another thought about that 2000-calorie idea.) An excessive amount of calories, however, can lead to weight gain. A 1.5oz shot of 80-proof liquor contains about 100 calories and no carbohydrates. A 12oz bottle of beer will have about 150 calories and 12g of carbohydrates. A 5oz glass of wine will have about 120 calories and 4g of carbohydrates. Mead is the worst offender with 1100 calories and 120g of carbohydrates per 6oz glass. None of them contains a sufficient amount of sodium or vitamins. Alcoholics then run into several problems:
Hyponatremia. Prolonged drinking leads to excessive consumption of free water, which in turn causes a dangerous drop in the body’s sodium levels. The result can eventually lead to confusion, seizure, coma, and death.
Wernicke's encephalopathy. The lack of thiamine (vitamin B1) causes confusion and movement disorders such as tremors and nystagmus of the eyes. Can be reversible with correction.
Korsakoff’s syndrome. Also comes from a lack of thiamine. Memory loss, inability to form new memories, hallucinations such as snakes. May not be reversible.
Ketosis. Occurs in liquor drinkers from the lack of sugar intake. This is an extreme form of the keto diet that comes from starvation. The only fix for this condition is food.
Other malnutrition. Given the lack of other vitamins, alcoholics can have anemia (iron and vitamin B12), scurvy (vitamin C).
Considerations
Why do beer makers not supplement their product with water-soluble vitamins such as B complex vitamins and vitamin C? Multiple studies using volunteers from the 1960s through 80s are summarized: