"Alcohol and sports" is something like alcohol in traffic; that leads to nothing good. At least, that's the popular opinion.
But that idea is also true? Now we are not talking about getting drunk under a 250-kilo dumbbell to squat a PR.
Then I can also tell you the outcome. But it can hurt so much at night 1-2 wines to drink or put the flowers outside on Saturday evening?
If you look for the bad influence of alcohol on health, and sports in particular, there are countless studies to be found.
For example, scientists at Massey University in New Zealand in 2009 had young, trained athletes do heavy, eccentric repetitions on the leg extension1.
Afterwards half got orange juice and the other half got orange juice with vodka.
The vodka group consumed in total 80 grams of alcohol, which equals 10 beers.
Thirty-six and sixty hours after the test, the strength of the participants was then measured.
That was considerably lower for the vodka group than for the "Sober" group, a sign that alcohol impeded recovery. The scientists are still speculating why this was the case.
"Alcohol makes you fat" and “alcohol interferes with the hormone balance ”are the most common reasons why alcohol should not be part of an athlete's diet. First of all, to go into the claim that alcohol makes you fat: is booze really such calorie bomb?
An average wine or beer produces such 80 calories. A glass of beer contains more carbohydrates then the same amount of wine: 6,5 versus 3 grams.
However, wine contains more alcohol then beer: 11 versus 8 grams per glass.
Alcohol supplies per gram 7 calories, that's more than protein or carbohydrates but less than fat.
However, alcohol also speeds up the metabolism, causing such a 20% of 7 Kcal burned again immediately.
If we take this increased thermogenesis into account, then one gram of alcohol is actually the same 5,6 calories. Viewed like this, a beer delivers 70,8 Kcal and a glass of wine 68 kcal.
This means that you are at one daily consumption of 2 glasses of wine you in a week 952 Kcal extra. Nothing shocking, but it can make the difference between of did not to lose weight.
What is the effect of alcohol on you metabolism? After drinking a wine or other alcoholic consumption, the body will use the ethanol (alcohol) in the drink as priority as fuel.
As a result, the burning of mainly fat, but also carbohydrates and protein, as a source of energy, is temporarily suspended.
If fat and carbohydrates are not burned, they will become earlier saved. Alcohol itself is very difficult to convert into body fat.
Only when you substantial drinks and also substantial eat, so it goes wrong.
If your calorie intake is in proportion to your energy consumption, alcohol will not make you fat.
Alcohol does not saturate like solid foods. As a result, you often unnoticeably consume more calories than is good for you. A major reason why we love alcohol dik is of course that we are there go on eating more. Exactly, you lose your inhibitions and what happens then? After a night out, you dive into the first snack bar for a shawarma or fries war sandwich.
Alcohol has adverse consequences for our hormone balance.
The assumption that this effect only occurs in the event of excessive intake is invalidated by a 2004 study.
In this test conducted by TNO in Zeist, 10 men and 9 women received 3 weeks respectively 40 en 30 grams of alcohol per day to drink2, this equates to about 4 or 3 wines.
The diet remained unchanged during the test. After the experiment pale that with the men it testosterone level had fallen by 6,8%. There was no change in the women.
Are the adverse consequences of very high alcohol consumption even greater? In a Finnish study, 8 healthy men between the ages of 20 and 26 were given for 3 hours 1,5 gram drink alcohol per kilogram of body weight.
This equates to such 12 wines for someone of 80 kilos.
The testosterone concentration was 10 to 16 hours after the test in the test subjects with average 23% decreased. The nocturnal release of growth hormone also decreased.
The amount of the muscle-degrading hormone cortisol However, 10 to 14 hours after drinking alcohol had increased by 36%.
A Spanish study showed a striking outcome.
Men and women who ended up in the emergency department of a hospital due to alcohol poisoning were subjected to a blood test.
While testosterone had fallen in men, it had actually increased in women4,5. The issue of cortisol increased in both sexes.
The effects of alcohol on our hormones as can be seen, are predominantly negative, with the most striking data being a decreasing testosterone (in men) and an increased release of the "stress hormone" cortisol.
However, recent research also shows a positive hormonal effect of alcohol6. A daily consumption of 2 glasses of red wine appears to act as an aromatase inhibitor in women: it inhibits the formation of estradiol and increases free testosterone.
White wine does not have this effect. Alcohol is often associated with (chest)cancer7, partly because it would increase the amount of estradiol in the body.
It now appears that, at least for women, the type of alcoholic drink influences this.
What is the judgment now? Should the athlete completely avoid alcohol? With limited consumption, it seems that the negative effects of alcohol are not too bad. Moderate alcohol consumption even has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system8 and insulin sensitivity9.
With more than 1 glass per day for women or 2 glasses for men, however, the adverse effects quickly increase. “Empty” calories, a longer recovery time, an increased release of cortisol and, in men, a decrease in testosteron, are things that an athlete is not immediately waiting for.
References:
- Barnes MJ, et al., Acute alcohol consumption aggravates the decline in muscle performance following strenuous eccentric exercise. J Sci Med Sports. 2009 Feb 18.
- Sierksma A, et al., Effect of moderate alcohol consumption on plasma dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate, testosterone, and estradiol levels in middle-aged men and postmenopausal women: a diet-controlled intervention study. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2004 May; 28 (5): 780-5.
- Välimäki M, et al., The pulsatile secretion of gonadotropins and growth hormone, and the biological activity of luteinizing hormone in men acutely intoxicated with ethanol. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 1990 Dec; 14 (6): 928-31.
- Frias J, et al., Effects of acute alcohol intoxication on pituitary-gonadal axis hormones, pituitary-adrenal axis hormones, beta-endorphin and prolactin in human adults or both sexes. Alcohol and Alcoholism. 2002 Mar-Apr; 37 (2): 169-73.
- Frias J, et al., Effects of acute alcohol intoxication on pituitary-gonadal axis hormones, pituitary-adrenal axis hormones, beta-endorphin and prolactin in human adolescents or both sexes. Life Sciences. 2000; 67 (9): 1081-6.
- Shufelt C, et al., Red versus white wine as a nutritional aromatase inhibitor in premenopausal women: a pilot study. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2012 Mar; 21 (3): 281-4. Epub 2011 Dec 7.
- Boffetta P, Hashibe M, La Vecchia C, Zatonski W, Rehm J (August 2006). "The burden of cancer attributable to alcohol drinking". International Journal of Cancer 119 (4): 884–7
- O'Keefe JH, Bybee KA, Lavie CJ (September 2007). Alcohol and cardiovascular health: the razor-sharp double-edged sword. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 50 (11): 1009–14
- J Hong, et al., Alcohol consumption promotes insulin sensitivity without affecting body fat levels. int. Journal of Obesity. 2009 Jan 6.