Alcohol, Wine and Coffee: You Don’t Want to Hear This

In the last article we talked about how alcohol and sugar are so similar. Being we indirectly smacked alcohol around, we might as well give it the direct attention it deserves.

These are one of those posts that I know most of you won’t like, but I am getting used to it.

Is alcohol bad for you and if so how bad is alcohol for you? Alcohol has a bunch of long term effects that we should consider such as alcohol abuse. Also we will touch on stimulants like coffee and what could happen to your body.

Before I go further, I know some of this stuff may offend or irritate some of you. That is fine.

I do want to remind you that when Know My Body was made, it was with the purpose of helping people take full control of their life. This is primarily demonstrated through the physical side of life, but it is more than just that. It is about having full control of your faculty’s, which means having physical and mental strength as well.

If something highly controls your actions, then it is hard for you to make the best decisions and leave the type of legacy you want to in life. I have seen this so plainly in my own life. Nothing is more liberating than being physically, mentally and spiritually free. Nothing is more devastating than feeling chained by the limitations of your mind and body. Please keep that in mind as we chat.

Alcohol’s Impact

Alcohol has numerous long term health issues that we commonly talked about, but there are also short term alcohol health risks as well.

Here are just some of them:

• As we mentioned, alcohol spikes your insulin levels. There is a lot of gluten and sugar in beer. This brings on the classic beer belly (or hips and butt). This suppresses fat loss and slows your metabolism.
  

  Does alcohol make your body happy or sad?

• As alcohol causes you to gain more weight, it makes it harder to work out or live an active lifestyle.
• Alcohol dehydrates you. You have to counter this with a lot of water in order to have a good workout or often you have to sweat it out, which makes you smell horrible.
• Alcohol knocks out your growth hormones, which impacts your insulin levels, recovery from fitness, and reproduction organs.
• The insulin spiking means hard times for your sleeping habits. You are easily tired, get mid-day “Glucose Comas” where you can barely function, and seem to find it hard to sleep through the night.
• Alcohol interferes with absorption of nutrients. It counteracts a lot of the good things you are trying to put in your body. It causes you excrete a lot of the nutrients from fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.
• We talked about the toxic nature it has. Your body has to constantly fight each time you consume it. This isn’t just the results of a hangover, but also the insulin sensitivity and inflammation that goes on in your body. More and more cells are oxidated and you get older and diseased faster.
• This doesn’t scratch the surface on alcohol addiction and chronic diseases like liver cancer.

What about Wine and Coffee?

So what about wine and coffee? There seems to be a lot of studies that show there are health benefits in both. Wine is similar in it’s depressant nature and what it can do to your blood sugar levels. Coffee, while maybe less dangerous, is still a stimulant. They both fall under the same general umbrella as beer.

And while there are potential for a lot of positives for alcohol and stimulants, it doesn’t mean they outweigh the negatives. They can all lead to addictions and withdrawals when you don’t have it. They can negate the nutrients that you are putting in your body.

You don’t doubt this guy.

They are unfortunately all toxic in that sense just like sugar, grains, and alcohol. As Tony Horton, creator of P90X, said about alcohol and coffee, “Both form an acidic environment in the body which can lead to heart disease, inflammation, arthritis, diabetes and major digestive issues. Some early studies are showing a possible link to various cancers as well.”

Maybe you can get away with drinking these, and doing so for years. But just like sugar and grains, it will catch up with you some day. It is just a matter of when. And if it is causing weight gain and eventually obesity, then it will mean a lot more issues and short term struggles.

Again the biggest concern I have is the dependency issues with alcohol and stimulants that flies in the face of what Know My Body is all about. It really isn’t that different from grains or sugars. You can get away with all of them, but how many times? How often can you open Pandora’s Box?

The sad truth is you don’t know how many times you can get away with it. There is no counting tally. It will reach up and snake bite you when you least expect it.

If you do decide to drink alcohol, then you want to do so as sparingly as possible. Never more than a 1 drink per occasion. You should avoid drinking daily. I would say the same with coffee. I would say the same thing about smoking too.

I want the best for you, so I am going to recommend not using any of these substances at all. But as always it is your body and you have to figure out how it works best.

Go back to your goals and ask yourself what you want. Do these options get you there? Do they help get you there faster in a life where time is of the essence? I would love to hear your feedback.

What’s next?

I knocked on dairy before, but is milk bad too? Is it worse? We will find out next post!

About Cade

Cade is the founder of Know My Body. Sorry...no doctor degree, fancy gym, multi-million dollar fitness program, or label as a self-proclaimed health guru of biblical proportions. He is a common guy just like you. Maybe that helps him get you a bit better.

He has worked the past several years trying to get a grasp of "health knowledgeries" from the perspective of a person working a 9 to 5 job and dealing with the normal and not-so-normal challenges that life gives. Visit our About Page to chew on some more knowledge about Cade and how we want to help you at Know My Body.