How Does Alcohol Affect the Metabolism?
The ongoing belief is that a few drinks of alcohol a day is healthy, but that’s not the case for our metabolism. In fact, there are many negative effects on metabolism from alcohol. Following are a few of them.
Alcohol Raises Blood Sugar
Blood sugar levels play a part in metabolism, and alcohol can mess blood sugar up. Alcohol stops the body from making glucose, as well as maintaining healthy blood sugar levels, and this can have a cumulative effect. After a while, people who drink too much alcohol can develop glucose intolerance and even get diabetes.
Alcohol Slows The Metabolism Down
Unlike coffee and green tea, alcohol does not rev up your metabolism. In fact, it slows it down. To be more clear, two drinks can have a negative impact on the metabolism.
Your body does not store alcohol, which means it has to metabolize it quickly. That means that when you drink, your body focuses on metabolizing the alcohol before all other metabolic processes. Your body will burn that second drink for fuel instead of burning fat, because the fat is harmless in comparison to the toxic alcohol, and that will slow down your fat burn by a massive amount if you drink too much. Studies have found that fat burn can drop by up to 73% from just two glasses of alcohol.
“Drinking presses ‘pause’ on your metabolism, shoves away the other calories, and says, ‘Break me down first!'” – CNN
Alcohol Stops Nutrient Absorption And Can Cause A Metabolic Disorder
Certain nutrients are essential for the metabolism to work properly. Alcohol plays a part in slowing down and even inhibiting nutrient absorption. For instance vitamin B1, B12, and zinc are all affected negatively by alcohol. The more alcohol a person drinks, the less likely it will be that they can eat enough food to supply adequate nutrients for proper function.
Alcohol can damage the cells that line the intestines and the stomach, which disables the transport of various nutrients into the blood. Alcohol can also cause inflammation on the gut wall. When that happens, further absorption issues can occur because certain nutrient deficiencies can cause other nutrient deficiencies to happen.
When the body is not getting enough essential nutrients, a metabolic disorder can occur. A healthy metabolism is a sum of the chemical process that occur in the cells and fluid of the body, which includes the absorption of nutrients and minerals.
Even if nutrients do get absorbed, alcohol can affect the transport, storage and excretion of the nutrients. For instance, alcohol can disrupt the tissue’s metabolism of nutrients. Stomach cells can secrete too much acid and histamine, which promotes inflammation in the cells. Liver cells stop activation vitamin D in the body. Rod cells in the retina, which are responsible for processing vitamin A, can find themselves processing alcohol instead. The liver is not able to process vitamin A either. This is just a small example of what occurs when you drink too much alcohol, and it is obvious that it has a huge impact on the metabolism and its effectiveness.
In addition to reducing the amount of drinks you have, you can also incorporate a metabolic workout routine like this one as a way to increase your metabolism.