Cutting back on alcohol is becoming more and more acceptable and has numerous health benefits, but the social aspect of sharing a glass of wine with friends can be a hard one to overcome. Here’s why you should give it a go;
1 - Weight loss - 1 bottle of wine, or 3 pints of beer, contains around 600 calories. But it isn't just the calories that make you fat.
Alcohol is metabolised by the liver, which prioritises processing the alcohol before anything else, meaning for 24hrs after drinking alcohol, your body is storing excess carbs and fats, contributing to weight gain. What’s more, alcohol also affects digestion and gut health, meaning a slower metabolism and even more stored fat.
2 - Improved sleep - While the traditional ‘night-cap’ was thought to aid sleep, it actually increases the time you spend in wakefulness during sleep cycles. Giving up alcohol for a month has been shown* to lead to an additional 6 REM cycles per night. Sleep also contributes to weight loss / gain by balancing the hormones that make you feel hungry / full. After drinking, our Grehlin levels (hunger hormone) go up and our leptin (feeling full hormone) go down. So, cutting out alcohol means better sleep, better metabolic response to food AND less fat storage.
3 - Hydration - Drinking alcohol causes dehydration which leads to headaches, tiredness, clumsiness and weakness. It can also cause you to snack more and particularly on high energy (read: high calorie) foods. Dehydration also leads to dull, wrinkled skin with slow cell turnover, making us look older than we are. Cutting out alcohol can help to keep your hydration levels on point, meaning more energy, better concentration, more motivation and better, more youthful skin!
How to replace alcohol in your diet.
While traditional soft drinks such as fizzy cans, fruit juices and cordials may serve a purpose, they’re all loaded with sugar or chemical sweeteners which can often do more harm than good.
Instead, our customers swear by Superfoods Instant Kombucha as a replacement for a glass of wine, the alcoholic element of a cocktail or just a glass of juice.
Just add water, fruit or coconut water for a lightly sparkling, refreshingly grown up drink that tastes as good from a wine glass as it does a tumbler.