Dr. Z on alcohol - Alcohol is in interesting subject. Always, right?

I'm going to lead off by saying NO beer or wine. It's not worth it. Too many calories. And lets be real, when it comes to alcohol, we want to maximize results and minimize calories. Kinda like when you were in college, but rather than maximizing results and minimizing calories, we wanted to maximize results and minimize costs. Remember those days? Penny pitchers come to mind.

So how do we do that? Stick with hard liquor and absolutely avoid sugary mixers. It's that simple. But while we're on the subject of alcohol, let's talk a bit about the biochemistry of it. It's kinda cool.

Alcohol has 7 calories per gram. That's 3 calories more per gram than a carbohydrate which has only 4 calories and it's 2 calories less than a fat, which has 9 calories per gram. The interesting thing about alcohol is that a 80 proof beverage like vodka, gin or a whiskey, doesn't generate an insulin response. This means that even though it has calories, it doesn't inhibit ketosis in the least because it doesn't contain any carbs. That's good news.

However, the bad news is that you're still consuming calories which will ultimately be stored as fat. It's kind of a push, nobody wins, but nobody loses completely either.It's kind of a push. You will still continue to burn fat as you'll remain in ketosis if you're only consuming straight alcohols, but you're also adding more fat that will need to be addressed.

I also recommend that you avoid diet coke or other, sweet, zero-calorie mixers. The reason is because even the taste of something sweet will activate your pancreas to release insulin in preparation of incoming carbohydrates. This is another example of how innately intelligent the body is.

Insulin is the key that unlocks a molecule of glucose. Without insulin (as is the case for diabetics) glucose will accumulate in the blood but the energy inside cannot be released because there is no key to unlock it. This isn't only relevant to alcohol consumption but also zero-calorie drink consumption. If you drink a lot diet soda, you're literally playing the boy who cried wolf with our pancreas. When you taste something sweet, your pancreas jumps into action presuming glucose is being consumed. When there is no glucose, as is the case with diet soda, you're pancreas becomes intolerant. It says, "why am I wasting my time secreting insulin when there is none." As a result, it quits.

This is why you need to break the diet coke habit. It skews a healthy insulin response so when you do actually consume something sweet that contains sugar, rather than tapping into those incoming calories for energy, there will be no insulin available so the calories will be immediately stored away as fat.

I got a bit long-winded there, but in summary, stay away from beer, wine and sugary mixers. And you also need to address your diet coke habit. Again, replace rather than reduce. Drink unsweetened tea for one week. You'll hate it for 3-4 days and after that you won't miss the dc at all. Trust me.

The dangers of aspertame - https://www.insideoutwellness.net/the-dangers-of-a...

Alcohol blog - https://www.insideoutwellness.net/questions-about-...

Kylene's tip - Leave alcohol for P3. People, myself included report long stalls after having too much and it takes too many of our calories.