Health
Raise A Glass To Your Health: How Cutting Back On Alcohol Can Improve Your Weight And Well-being
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Cutting back on booze, even if you do not altogether quit, can bring you a plethora of benefits.
You may have heard that reducing your alcohol intake can help you lose weight, and this is true. But it may be new to you that it can improve your overall well-being, whether physical or mental.
Table of Contents
Better Mental Health
You may have the idea that drinking alcohol makes you happy, and this may be true for a while because of increased dopamine release. However, prolonged heavy drinking leads to emotional instability and worsening mental health.
Reducing your alcohol intake or taking a break from it can help your emotions heal, relieving gloomy moods, anxiety, and tiredness. With a happier outlook, you will have the urge to do things that make you happy such as venturing out to mingle with other people and exercising.
Healthier Body
Short-term or long-term, your physical health will reap many benefits when you cut back on your alcohol intake. Even just a few weeks without alcohol can improve your health. Alcohol weakens the immune system, so you can easily catch a cold. You will notice that drinking less or not drinking at all helps your body to fight diseases, and you can recover quickly.
In the long run, your liver and heart will become healthier, you will reduce the risk of having cancer, and you will have better digestion.
Improved Liver Function
The liver is a very essential organ. It helps fight infections and diseases, regulate blood sugar and cholesterol levels, aid food digestion, and filter toxins from the body. Every time your liver filters alcohol, some of its cells die. Excessive consumption of alcohol can result in alcoholic fatty liver disease. This disease is reversible if you stop drinking or reduce your alcohol consumption to a healthy level since the liver is capable of regenerating. On the other hand, continuous excessive drinking can cause permanent damage to the liver.
Reduced Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease
While there are studies that say moderate drinking is good for the heart, the key word is “moderate.” However, people with heart diseases or who are at risk of such conditions would prefer to avoid alcohol.
Heavy drinking or excessive intake of alcohol can lead to poor heart conditions making you at risk of heart failure, stroke, high blood pressure, or even cardiomyopathy. The American Heart Association cites alcohol as one of the leading causes of cardiomyopathy, a disease that affects the heart muscle.
Decreased Risk Of Cancer
The World Health Organization cites alcohol intake as one of the causes of cancer. Research shows that all drinks that contain alcohol are linked with cancer, so the less you drink, the lower your risk of cancer.
Better Digestion
The alcohol you drink can cause stress on the stomach and intestines, leading to lessened digestive secretions and slowed food movement. Since digestive secretions break down food so that it can be easily absorbed by the body, decreased secretions impair digestion and absorption of nutrients from the food to be used by the body.
Healthier Appearance
You can achieve a healthier appearance if you cut back on the booze – your skin can look radiant, and you can lose body fat.
Weight Loss
Less alcohol, less calorie intake. You might be avoiding pizza or ice cream because of their calories, but beer or wine may contain a similar amount of calories. The calorie content of alcoholic beverages is “empty” or devoid of any nutrition. A 12-ounce can of beer contains almost 155 calories, and a 5-ounce wine has 125 calories. Our daily calorie intake should not exceed around 2,000 to maintain a healthy weight. Daily drinking results in the accumulation of hundreds of calories. Certainly, reducing or cutting out your alcohol intake will result in weight loss and get rid of that annoying belly fat as the body tends to accumulate fat in the abdominal area.
As you lessen or avoid your alcohol intake, be careful not to replace it with other high-calorie drinks.
Other than calories, alcohol can also replace your body’s healthy sources of energy. The body burns alcohol first as a fuel source before other sources. In effect, the excess glucose and lipids, which were not used by our bodies, end up as adipose tissue or fat.
Better Sleep
Some people drink alcoholic beverages before sleeping because it helps them fall asleep. However, researchers say that it reduces REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. When we get enough REM sleep, we wake up refreshed, and without adequate REM sleep, we feel tired and less able to concentrate during the day. Lack of sleep can lead to an imbalance in hormones related to hunger, satiety, and energy, and it increases stress hormones making it difficult to burn fat. Therefore, cutting back on your alcohol intake will give you better and restorative sleep while helping you lose weight.
Healthier Skin
Drinking alcoholic beverages can dehydrate your body. Since alcohol is a diuretic, it increases your body’s need to urinate. As you often urinate, you will lose water and sodium more quickly, causing your skin to look dull and dry.
Research also shows that alcohol can cause facial redness or flushing (rosacea), or if you already have this condition, alcohol consumption can worsen it.
Plan For A Healthier Weight
Your decision to moderate your drinking to a healthy level can protect your health now and in the future – whether it is physical or mental. Starting now, every small step will help reduce the risks of having several diseases. You may not feel it now, but these can appear later in your life. There are many programs that can help you achieve your health and weight loss goals.
Sunnyside can help you. You can receive personalized action plans based on your weight loss goals. With their app for weight loss, you can track the drinks you have every day, and it also monitors the calories you’ve cut.
Read more – Is Alcohol Good For You? Consider The Qualities Of These Popular Spirits
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