February Nutrition Clinic: Indulgences

Monday, February 20th, 7pm - 8pm @ The Woodmark Hotel

Come taste wine, eat chocolate and other sweet extras while learning how to incorporate these types of foods into a healthy lifestyle, whether you are maintaining weight or losing weight.

Hear tips and tricks from Ashley (Registered Dietitian) and learn the why behind our desire to use sweets and alcohol as a stress reliever from Melissa (Licensed Mental Health Therapist).

$30.00, Limited Space, Please RSVP at Crave Health

or by calling (425) 828-0100

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Alcohol Part Two: Antioxidants

First, lets review what an "antioxidant" actually is.

"Anti” means “against, or opposed to” and “oxidant” refers to the process of oxidation (when a molecular process in the body causes an increase in oxygen). So an antioxidant is a molecule that slows or stops an increase in oxygen. Now normally we think of oxygen as a great thing - we need it to live! But increasing oxygen in certain chemical reactions can cause free-radicals (molecules with unpaired electrons) due to the transfer of electrons that happens. A free-radical can be highly reactive due to that unpaired electron, which can cause damage to our cells and leave them susceptible to disease.

Antioxidants go in and fill in that missing electron, making the free-radical whole again. So you can imagine with pollution in the air, chemicals and pesticides in the water we drink and food we eat, sun damage to our skin, there is a lot of cell damage that happens to our bodies that leave plenty of free-radicals running around. So, in a nutshell, antioxidants are very important to our daily lives, which is why you're hearing the word so often.

There are many different types of antioxidants. They are split into 2 groups - those that are soluble in water and those that are soluble in lipids (fats). This matters in the body because we have both liquids (blood, etc) and lipids (cell membranes, etc) which are in need of antioxidant activity.

The Antioxidant in Red Wine

The antioxidant that is found in Red Wine, the alcohol most commonly associated with antioxidants is called "Resveratrol" which is considered a polyphenol antioxidant (the term refers to the chemical structure) and Phytonutrient (chemical compounds that naturally occur in plants). Studies of resveratrol in mice/rats have shown anti-inflammatory effects, blood sugar lowering effects, and may combat obesity, cancer and cardiovascular disease. However, most of these studies have not been repeated in humans yet.

Resveratrol is found in the skin of grapes used to make wine. The reason red wine is said to be higher in resveratrol than white wine is because red wine is fermented with the skins longer than white wine. But guess what? You can just eat grapes and skip the whole fermenting thing and still get the resveratrol - hellloooooo.....

Peanuts, blueberries and cranberries also have resveratrol. Below are a few charts for comparison.

Content in wines and grape juice
Beverage Total resveratrol (mg/150mL)

Red Wines 0.30 - 1.07

Red grape juice 0.17 - 1.30
Rose Wines 0.06 - 0.53
Pinot Noir 0.06 - 0.30
White Wines 0.01 - 0.27

Content in selected foods
Food Serving Total resveratrol (mg)

Peanuts (raw) 1 c 0.01 - 0.26
Peanuts (boiled) 1 c 0.32 - 1.28
Peanut butter 1 c 0.04 - 0.13
Red grapes 1 c 0.24 - 1.25

Besides the antioxidants in wine, the alcohol itself does have effects on the body that can "help" certain things but mostly just temporarily. Alcohol thins the blood and also causes blood sugar levels to drop (more on that in Part Three). Which could look really good to someone who has thickening arterial walls due to plaque buildup or someone with pre-diabetes who runs high blood sugar levels. But those effects happen just while alcohol is in the body, and the negative effects outweigh the positive ones.

The moral of the story is this: if you currently drink alcohol, please do so in moderation or less. "Moderation" is defined as 1 drink per day for females and 2 drinks per day for males. A "drink" is 5oz of wine, 12oz of beer or 1.5oz (shot) of liquor. Now I honestly think that's pushing it towards too much...but those are the defined guidelines. Remember from the last blog post on alcohol that one drink per night can result in 10 lbs of weight gain per year...so "moderation" may not be what you need! In fact, when trying to lose weight, you should not drink alcohol AT ALL. And for those of you that don't drink but were considering picking it up due to the antioxidant value, don't. You can get antioxidants from plenty of other foods, without the toxins from the alcohol.

Next: Alcohol Part Three: "The Freshman Fifteen"

Blessings,

Ashley

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Alcohol: Part One - Nutrition Basics

Alcohol: Part One - Nutritional Basics
This will be a 3-part blog series to be sure to look for part 2 and 3 as well!

Alcohol is potentially one of the greatest barriers to weight loss and overall health. It is a topic that no one likes to talk about because most of the time we don't want to face the music. Alcohol is involved in a lot of social settings and can give people a sense of "courage" they don't normally have to be funny or outgoing. Sometimes we associate alcohol with stress relief, thinking that a drink takes all of our problems away when in reality its just distracting you from them momentarily.

We are going to focus on the nutrition in alcohol and its effects on our metabolism and overall health. After working in an addiction treatment center I know that alcoholism as a disease is a very serious and worthwhile topic, but we'll leave that more specific topic to the CDP's (chemical dependency counselors) in their blogs.

Shocker #1: ALCOHOL HAS CALORIES.

Yes, yes it does. Its surprising to me how many people really don't know this. At a University that Ill withhold the name of, I held a booth in the cafeteria with fake drinks sitting next to their caloric equivalent in food. You would not believe how many students came up and were absolutely shocked - mostly to learn that hard alcohol has calories. For some reason we think that since Vodka looks like water it has the same nutrition...haha, umm no.

In fact, you might have heard that alcohol is "empty calories". A lot of magazine articles on health and nutrition use this terminology. What they mean by empty calories is that the food or drink item has calories (energy) in it, without any other nutritional benefit such as protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. which means you're not getting any additional benefit for your body, hence, "empty".

Lets look at your typical drinks. Each of these has about 100-150 calories:

The most shocking one is usually the hard alcohol - it has a lot calories by itself in a shot glass (which goes down in about 5 seconds). If you throw a shot into a drink like most people do....gin & tonic, rum & coke...then you need to include the calories from the mixer! And what if you have a drink-drink like a Cosmopolitan, Tequila Sunrise, Mai Tai...well those have multiple mixers and multiple alcohols which just adds more calories to the mix.

Lets take a look at some comparisons...

12oz Beers
Budweiser - 145 kcals
Bud Light - 110 kcals
Bud Select - 100 kcals
Stella Artois - 155 kcals
Corona Light - 105 kcals

4oz Wines (1/2 a large wine glass)
Reds - 80 kcals
Whites - 75 kcals
Champagne - 85 kcals

1.5oz (1 shot) Pure Hard Liquors
80 Proof - 100 kcals
86 Proof - 105 kcals
100 Proof - 120 kcals

1.5oz "Fun" Shots
Alabama Slammer - 110 kcals
Jager Bomb - 205 kcals
Kamikaze - 75 kcals
Peppermint Patty - 200 kcals

Cocktails
Bacardi & Coke - 160 kcals
Bloody Mary - 125 kcals
Cosmopolitan - 215 kcals
Gin Martini - 140 kcals
Long Island Iced Tea - 270 kcals
Mai Tai - 290 kcals
Margarita - 160 kcals
Sex on the Beach - 235 kcals
Vodka Soda - 100 kcals
Vodka Tonic (Gin&Tonic) - 165 kcals

Other
Hard Cider (12oz) - 170 kcals
Mikes Hard Lemonade (12oz) - 240 kcals
Sparks (16oz) - 340 kcals
Bacardi Silver (12oz) - 240 kcals
Wine Coolers (12oz) - 200 kcals

100 extra calories per day (like a glass of wine per night) can lead to 10 lbs of weight gain per year. Ouch.

So, you can decide for yourself what you'd like to do with this information. If you are someone who drinks fluids fast, then consider switching your drink to something that has more volume for the calories it provides. Or you could just cut down your drinking! Order a water in between drinks or a soda water with lime in between - that helps you pace yourself as well as cut down the calories.

Shocker #2: Alcohol can and eventually will over time cause excess fatty acid build up in the liver and triglyceride storage.
This is more likely in those with overweight/obesity or metabolic syndrome. This is referred to as "Fatty Liver". Extra deposits of fat in the liver over time can cause enlargement of the liver and eventually lead to liver fibrosis (scar tissue) and cirrhosis (starting to lose liver function). The liver is the primary organ of fat metabolism, and also the organ that deals with toxins in the body. Unfortunately, the liver can only do one thing at a time - and toxins will always take priority. That priority is what causes the liver to stop metabolizing fats, therefore causing a buildup of excess fats over time.

Today we've learned that alcohol has calories and if abused can cause increased storage of fat in the liver.

Next:
Alcohol: Part Two - Antioxidants
Alcohol: Part Three - The Freshman Fifteen

Blessings,
Ashley

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