Your Health

Celebrating Your Body

Your Health

Effects Of Alcohol

How would you like to wake up every morning raring to go and bursting with energy? A clean diet, rich in natural foods can help.

Cleaning up your diet means thinking about what you put into your body, and the effect it has on you. It applies to the kinds of food you eat, but also - and more importantly - the quality of the food you eat. I'm not just talking about the healthier' options in terms of food type, but foods that are richer in nutrients.

Go organic
Commercial farming methods use an array of chemicals to protect crops and promote growth in plants and animals. Some of these manmade chemicals are now thought to cause disease (including some cancers) as well as hyperactivity in children, asthma, eczema and a host of other illnesses.

Others upset our hormonal balance, leading to problems such as infertility or mood swings. Organic farmers avoid using toxic chemical sprays on their crops, their animals are kept in more natural, free-range conditions and are fed on natural foods. In addition, organic meat does not come from animals that have been 'beefed up' using chemical hormones or antibiotics.

Go seasonal
The concept of eating what is in season disappeared with the advent of modern food supply and transport, but eating with the seasons is a fundamental naturopathic philosophy and is important because the body needs and craves certain foods depending on the time of year.

Make it fresh
There is no question, fresh is best. Some important vitamins (including vitamins A and C) degrade over time as a result of exposure to light, heat and oxygen. Apply this attitude on freshness to all your fruit and vegetables and your nutrient intake will soar.

Eat the whole grain
Wheat, rye, oats, rice and barley are some of the mainstays of the modern diet. In their wholegrain, natural form, these cereals are a fantastic and very nutritious. However, modern milling techniques, and the huge worldwide demand for refined, white-flour products, has seen a drastic decline in the nutrient levels in our breads, pastas and other cereal-based foods.

Eat sustainable fish
The clean diet should be healthy for the environment as well as for your body. Over-fishing is now seen by marine scientists as the single greatest threat to marine wildlife and our oceans. Many fish stocks are in a state of serious decline, with some common stocks on the verge of collapse.

The calories in alcohol add up to increased body fat, so bear in mind the following points the next time you feel like having that extra drink:

Alcohol is mainly just a source of empty calories', meaning it has no nutritive value other than providing energy. Although most alcoholic drinks contain sugars and traces of vitamins and minerals, it's not usually in amounts that make any significant contribution to the diet. People who are overweight actually gain weight more easily when they drink alcohol. Calories from alcohol tend to be stored in the gut. If you want six-pack abs, you'll need to cut down on the booze.

Calorie content of common alcoholic beverages

Although alcohol itself doesn't contain fat, it is packed with calories. And when you add in mixers – juice, sugar and other ingredients – the calories really can add up.

Non-alcoholic beer actually has the same calories as alcoholic beer.

Wine: Dry wine contains fewer calories than sweeter wine. For example, a glass of dry wine has about 106 calories and a glass of sweet dessert wine has a whopping 226 calories. If you drink a glass of wine before dinner, another glass with dinner and a sweet wine for dessert, you've added more than 400 calories to your meal.

You'll be glad to hear that champagne contains the same amount of calories as other dry wines, 106 calories per glass.

The hard stuff: The calories in gin, rum, vodka or whiskey depends on the proof, which is twice the percentage of alcohol. For example, 90 proof vodka contains 45 per cent alcohol; 100 proof contains 50 per cent alcohol. And it’s easy to guess which has more calories: The higher the proof, the higher the calories.

Here’s the damage:

• Double shot 80 proof contains 97 calories

• Double shot 90 proof contains 110 calories

• Double shot 100 proof contains 124 calories

Calorie content of other types of liquor varies greatly. Watch the really sweet stuff, though. A serving of schnapps has 108 calories, and crème de menthe will set you back 186 calories.


Mixed drinks: Obviously, the larger the drink the higher the calorie content. If your favorite watering hole serves pond-sized margaritas, you can easily drink more than 400 calories (without the chips and guacamole). Choose a smaller cocktail like a Cosmopolitan and you’ll only take in about a third of the calories. In a common serving size, here’s how many calories your favorite drink contains:

• Bloody Mary: 115 calories (the celery adds less than five calories)

• Gin and tonic: 171 calories

• Pina colada: 262 calories

• Whiskey sour: 122 calories

Three glasses of dry wine a week will cost you 318 calories, or an additional three miles on the treadmill just to walk off the extra calories. If you’re watching your weight, try this advice:

• Don’t drink alcohol regularly

• Remember that the calories from alcohol add up quickly, and they go straight to the fat in your abdomen

• Most people eat high-calorie snacks when they drink alcohol, a double whammy in terms of weight gain

Suddenly water with a twist of lemon begins to hold more appeal.

Copyright (C) 2011 myinfotogo.com Magazine, Charleston, SC. All Rights Reserved..

Women’s Health is for the woman who want to reach a healthy, attractive weight but do not aspire to becoming the latest super model. We know that exercising and eating healthy will make you happier and stronger. Also we understand that life can be stressful since there's never enough time, and by having a little more help will make a balanced life more achievable.

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