Alcohol is one of the most commonly consumed drugs in the world. 85.6% of American adults report having tried alcohol at some point in their lives. Nearly 70% say they've had at least one drink in the past year ( 1 ). Let's look at how alcohol can affect your health and blood sugar.
A healthy and balanced relationship with alcohol is certainly possible. Yet few of us truly understand the vastly different effects that small, moderate, or excessive amounts of alcohol in our bodies have on our health.
Alcohol and health: Does alcohol really harm the body so much?
Unfortunately, yes. Alcohol affects the body in various ways, and almost all of them are bad for you.
However, the extent to which alcohol affects your health depends on several factors. How much do you drink? How often do you drink? What do you drink? And how do you compensate for alcohol consumption in your life through exercise and diet?
Let's take a closer look at what alcohol does to your body and how much you can safely drink.
How much alcohol can you drink per week?
No more than 7 drinks per week for women or 14 drinks per week for men.
We assume you drink alcohol in moderation. This means that, as a woman, you consume no more than 7 drinks per week. That's roughly equivalent to 7 glasses of wine, 7 beers, or 7 shots of spirits, divided into no more than 3 glasses at a time. As a man, you can generally consume 14 drinks per week, provided you don't drink more than 4 per day.
Drinking more than this amount is considered alcohol abuse. Alcohol abuse is directly linked to liver and lung disease, weakened immune function, low bone density, hormonal disruption, and brain changes.
If you find yourself needing a sip of alcohol to calm or relax, or feeling a strong urge to drink in the morning or throughout the day, you may have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. In this case, we strongly advise you to consult a doctor and get help. Alternatively, you can also contact an anonymous support group to get you on the right path. At the end of this article, we've compiled a short list of some support groups, with various locations.
Alcohol and weight gain
Yes, alcohol usually contains a lot of excess calories. But that's not the only reason you might have a beer belly.
Alcohol impairs your normal energy mechanism. Once alcohol is in your body, it becomes your preferred energy source. This means your body primarily burns alcohol before returning to burning fat and processing proteins and carbohydrates.
One study showed that excessive alcohol consumption (e.g., more than 5 glasses of beer in 30 minutes or 4 shots of vodka) reduced total fat burning by 79% and protein burning by 39%, and almost completely canceled out the 249% increase in carbohydrate burning ( 2 ). In other words, your body is busy processing the alcohol and can't utilize excess energy. As a result, you gain weight.
Effect of alcohol on your blood sugar
This depends on how much you drink and what you drink (avoid sugary cocktails or mixed drinks). The effects are significantly worse if you follow a calorie-restricted, time-restricted, or low-carbohydrate diet.
Alcohol causes your blood sugar levels to drop below a healthy level (also known as hypoglycemia). When you drink alcohol, your liver is busy detoxifying the alcohol, so it can't release stored glucose or glycogen ( 3 ). After 48 g of alcohol, which is equivalent to four glasses of wine or four beers, your body's glucose production drops by about 45%, leading to hypoglycemia. If you drink a more moderate amount of alcohol, your body's glucose production only drops by about 12%, so the likelihood of a glucose crash is significantly lower. However, if your glucose stores are already depleted, you may still experience a drop in blood sugar. This is especially common in people who drink alcohol while following a keto diet or other low-carb diet, as well as in those who practice intermittent fasting.
How do I know if I have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)? When your blood sugar drops below a healthy level, you'll likely first feel the effects in your mood. You may feel tired, have low energy, lack motivation, be unproductive, and could suddenly feel more irritable and experience mood swings. If you suddenly feel like everyone around you has dropped their IQ by 20 points, you should check your blood sugar before doing (or saying!) anything drastic.
However, if you drink a carbohydrate-rich alcoholic beverage like beer, your blood sugar level may actually rise. This is because when you consume alcohol and carbohydrates at the same time, your body prefers alcohol as a fuel source, while it cannot utilize the energy from carbohydrates. This drives up blood sugar levels and can cause hyperinsulinemia.
Recognize how alcohol affects you
The actual extent to which alcohol affects your blood sugar levels varies greatly from person to person and depends largely on your metabolism and overall health. The best way to determine how alcohol affects your body is to use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and monitor your body's response in the Hello Inside app.
The effects of alcohol on the brain
Alcohol contains ethanol, which in small amounts can act as a psychoactive drug, relaxing the brain and producing euphoria. Higher amounts can lead to fatigue, depression, dehydration, nausea, and unconsciousness, thus impairing health.
All of this depends on your blood alcohol level, with the line between low and high levels of alcohol consumption being very thin. The effect of alcohol on the brain may also change over time as the body processes it. This means that you might feel like a world champion in the pub or on the dance floor, but suddenly feel depressed at home.
We are all very individual when it comes to how our bodies react to alcohol. Two people sharing a bottle of wine can react very differently to the alcohol. This depends on their individual metabolic, physiological, and cognitive characteristics. The reaction also depends heavily on whether and what they eat while consuming alcohol.
Alcohol in the body often impairs mental functions such as attention and alertness ( 4 ), which is why drink-driving is a serious offense in most countries. However, the effects can be seen at blood alcohol levels as low as 0.02–0.03%. These levels are well below the level legally considered intoxication in most countries, which is 0.05% in most European countries and 0.08% in England and Wales ( 5 ).
Alcohol directly impairs memory, planning ability, and the ability to process language and information. People with alcohol in their blood are more likely to exhibit aggressive, impulsive behavior and feel uninhibited in social situations. Alcohol also contributes more frequently to poor decision-making.
Alcohol and sleep
Alcohol makes you sleepy, but it also makes you sleep worse.
A few drinks can make you feel sleepy and foggy. This is because alcohol has a depressant effect on the central nervous system. This slows down brain activity and directly affects thought processes, behavior, and emotions.
Drinking alcohol can make you feel sleepier because of its sedative effect ( 6 ). However, alcohol has been shown to directly negatively impact sleep quality, making it unlikely that you'll get a good night's rest. Once you sleep, the alcohol in your body causes frequent nighttime and early morning awakenings, significantly disrupting your sleep pattern ( 7 ).
The body's response to alcohol in terms of sleep varies and depends on several factors such as age, gender, general fitness, and the amount of exercise. The type (e.g., spirits, wine, or beer) and amount of alcohol also play a role. However, alcohol consumption impairs the body's ability to recover and sleep during the night. Poor sleep has a direct impact on your blood sugar levels the next day, but also an indirect effect, as you eat more carbohydrates and sugar to combat your hangover. Since recovery is very important for your physical and mental health, you should be careful with your alcohol consumption.
Can you stay fit and healthy despite drinking alcohol?
There's a reason why many professional athletes avoid alcohol consumption altogether. But a generally fit, healthy, and active lifestyle can somewhat mitigate the effects of alcohol consumption.
Alcohol may impair muscle work capacity, thus reducing overall performance levels (e.g., running and cycling times). It also reduces the body's ability to regulate its temperature during exercise, e.g., through sweating, and leads to faster fatigue during intense physical activity ( 8 ).
Even small amounts of alcohol can impair the body's fuel supply by depleting muscle glycogen and reducing glucose uptake in the leg muscles. This means that continuing to drink alcohol, even in moderation and socially, makes it particularly difficult to build strength and muscle mass.
However, it has been proven that small amounts of alcohol have little or no effect on muscle protein metabolism. However, with excessive and repeated alcohol consumption, chronic alcohol abuse leads to a reduction in basal muscle protein synthesis ( 9 ). In this case, alcohol definitely has a negative impact on your health.
Small amounts of alcohol can also negatively impact psychomotor skills, impairing athletic performance. Small amounts of alcohol (up to 0.05 g per 100 ml of blood) lead to increased hand tremors, slowed reaction time, and reduced hand-eye coordination. Moderate amounts of alcohol (0.06 g to 0.10 g per 100 ml of blood) further exacerbate these factors and also impair balance, visual abilities, and reaction time.
However, in moderate doses, alcohol has some beneficial effects on the organism via psychobiological mechanisms. In moderate amounts, alcohol can reduce pain and anxiety, which can be beneficial in certain sports.
Is drinking spirits healthier than consuming wine or beer?
Pure spirits often contain less sugar than cocktails, beer, or wine. However, they have a much higher alcohol content, making consumption more difficult to control.
Some people choose spirits like vodka, gin, or whiskey over lower-alcohol options like wine or beer because they consider them "healthier." These spirits, in particular, are free of sugar and carbohydrates, meaning they contain fewer calories than sugary wine or beer, making them a suitable option for people on a diet like the keto diet.
However, it's important to remember that the alcohol concentration in spirits is much higher than in beer or wine. A 50ml can of vodka contains about the same amount of alcohol as a glass of 4% beer.
Therefore, it can be more difficult to keep track of the amount of alcohol consumed when drinking relatively small amounts of spirits. This means that if you're not careful, consuming spirits can lead to consuming more alcohol than drinking beer or wine.
The big difference, in fact, lies in your blood sugar levels. While drinking spirits can lead to lower blood sugar levels and even hypoglycemia, drinking beer and wine, which are high in carbohydrates and sugar, can have the opposite effect. To find out how this affects you individually, we recommend monitoring your blood sugar levels with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) the next time you go to a bar with your friends and tracking your data in your Hello Inside app . This way, you can learn how your body reacts to alcohol and make smarter lifestyle and health choices.
How long does the alcohol stay in your body?
Allow about two hours for each beer, glass of wine, or liquor.
Are you reading this after a particularly heavy night of drinking? If you're wondering how long you'll have to live with the consequences, don't worry! For most people, alcohol passes through the system relatively quickly. Your body won't be under the effects of alcohol for very long.
How quickly your body is able to clear alcohol from your system depends on your gender and weight. Someone who weighs 70 kg should expect to metabolize about 7 g of alcohol per hour. This means it only takes about two hours for a liter of beer to be eliminated from the body.
During this time, your body will likely feel dehydrated and also notice the lack of other nutrients (like salt) you normally provide it with. This is called a hangover. Drink water and eat healthy, nutritious meals until you feel better. It's also not a good idea to start strenuous exercise until your body is back to 100% fitness, as your thermoregulation and aerobic energy supply need to be fully restored for you to perform at your best. Therefore, skip the gym after a night of heavy drinking.
How can you drink alcohol more healthily? Can you balance alcohol and blood sugar?
Yes and no.
As you've just read, alcohol has several complex and negative effects on your body, your well-being, and your blood sugar levels (and therefore, your overall health). But it's okay to have a drink from time to time. There are some choices you can make to avoid sending your body on a blood sugar roller coaster.
Enjoy wine (any color!), champagne, or spirits over ice or mixed with soda water or a sugar-free mixer. This way, you at least avoid added sugar. Avoid beer and sugary cocktails, which can spike your blood sugar.
Stay hydrated by drinking a glass of water for every alcoholic drink. Don't drink on an empty stomach. And make sure you get enough rest so your body can recover. Remember, it takes your body about two hours to flush half a liter of beer from your system, so be mindful of how much you drink!
