Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

Have you managed to quit alcohol for Dry January? I know – who wants to even think about such a ghastly prospect. Certainly not me. But it’s good to know all the facts. It might even inspire us reluctants. Dry February is surely a less horrendous prospect than quitting in the most depressing month of the year.

If your goal is to have a healthy start to 2025, there’s no doubt that cutting back or cutting out alcohol would give your health a major boost.

Alcohol has almost the same calories per gram as fat – now that’s a devastating factoid. Alcohol contains 7 calories per gram whereas pure fat has 9 calories per gram. To really make you feel ill look at the exact calories – one pint of 4% strength beer has 182 calories, one large gin and tonic has 390 calories, one large glass of wine equates to 185 calories and a half a bottle of Prosecco is loaded with 350 calories.

But alcohol calories are empty calories, meaning that while they provide the same energy but none of the nutrition that food provides.

As well as the calories in alcohol, drinking also makes us more likely to eat too much. You can put up their hand and say they haven’t stopped off in the chipper on the way home after a session or nibbled on nuts, crisps or cheese while imbibing a glass of wine or beer. Alcohol triggers the part of the brain that makes us feel hungry.

It also reduces our inhibitions so we are less likely to worry about picking the unhealthy options when drinking. Alcohol can also slow down our body’s fat-burning process, according to the HSE.

“Your liver processes and stores all of the fat, carbohydrates and protein that you consume. It breaks then down and turns them into energy. But your body cannot store alcohol, meaning it must be broken down ahead of everything else.

“This slows down your metabolic rate, reducing the amount of fat your body burns for energy.”

The recommended weekly low-risk alcohol guidelines are less than 11 standard drinks for women and 17 standard drinks for men. Drinks should be spread out over the week and it’s recommended to have two to three alcohol-free days per week.

“Drink no more than 6 standard drinks on any 1 occasion,” the advice goes.

In Ireland a standard drink has about 10 grams of pure alcohol. In the UK a standard drink, also called a unit of alcohol, has about 8 grams of pure alcohol.

Some examples of a standard drink in Ireland are a pub measure of spirits (35.5ml), a small glass of wine (12.5% volume), a half pint of normal beer or an alcopop (275ml bottle).

A bottle of 12.5% alcohol wine has about seven standard drinks – certainly not in this house where the wine glasses are the size of small countries.

Drinking within the recommended weekly low-risk alcohol guidelines has long-term benefits, greatly reducing the risk of high blood pressure and strokes, depression and anxiety, seven kinds of cancer, liver disease and other alcohol-related conditions.