A person who for one reason or another is forced to follow a diet should think about the possibility of combining it with a diet before drinking alcohol. Strong alcohol with a diet can only harm the body and prevent you from losing extra pounds, as many alcoholic beverages with a high ethanol content are high in calories. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't drink alcohol while on a diet. Some drinks can be combined in moderation with your diet.
Properties of alcoholic beverages
Quite often, when losing weight, we only count the number of calories in the food at the table, but we do not take into account ordinary and alcoholic beverages. Some go to the other extreme, believing that alcohol can only put the diet, not allowing you to control the amount of food, and therefore not drinking at all.
However, not everyone knows that during a diet, some alcoholic (low-calorie) drinks, on the contrary, are useful, because they help improve digestion, accelerate metabolic processes, which will create favorable conditions for weight loss. In this case, it is necessary to know exactly what type of alcohol can be consumed during the diet and whether it is possible to drink strong alcohol during the diet.
To understand what kind of alcohol you can drink during a diet, you need to study the features of its effect on the body. Hence, it is worth noting that any alcohol-containing drink contains ethanol. This is a fairly caloric substance that is well absorbed by our body. There is the following classification of alcohol:
- non-distilled alcoholic beverages such as wine and beer;
- refined drinks, i. e. distilled, namely vodka, whiskey, alcohol.
Alcohol will contribute to the appearance of excess weight in such cases:
- If you drink at a party, you will inevitably have to eat, and since alcohol increases your appetite, you can eat a lot more than your diet prescribes.
- Strong alcoholic drinks are high in calories. That is, if you drink vodka, cognac, whiskey and other strong alcoholic beverages, you can begin to recover, which during the diet will nullify all your efforts.
- Alcoholic beverages that contain a lot of sugar, yeast or other nutritional components (cream, milk, eggs, various flavors) should not be consumed during a diet, as they contribute to rapid weight gain. It is best to drink alcohol with a minimum carbohydrate content.
- Even if we don't take into account how much alcohol we drink, it is worth remembering that ethyl alcohol slows down the fat processing processes. As a result, you may not gain weight, but you will not be able to lose weight on such a diet.
- In addition, by regularly drinking even low-alcohol drinks, you contribute to the disturbance of metabolic processes in the body. This leads to the development of alcoholism and weight gain.
Alcoholic beverages allowed during the diet
Now let's find out what can you drink on a diet? If we evaluate all alcoholic beverages in terms of calorie content, then it will be the most high-calorie liquor, as it contains a lot of sugar and other nutritional additives that give it a certain taste. That is why it is best to refuse to use it during a diet.
During the diet, it is allowed to drink drinks based on grape juice. They are not only low in calories, but also very useful, as they contain a lot of useful substances, trace elements and acids. Therefore, you can rest assured if you can drink wine while on the diet. It is certainly possible and even necessary, since wine contains substances that contribute to weight loss, namely:
- Tartaric acid increases the acidity of gastric juice, which significantly improves digestion processes. However, people with high acidity need to be careful, as wine can damage the digestive tract.
- When wine is consumed in moderation, the beneficial substances in the drink improve metabolic processes in the body, which is also very beneficial for dieters.
- Drinking a little wine once a day will help improve iron absorption, which will have a beneficial effect on your blood composition and well-being.
- Red wine contains a special substance that reduces the amount of insulin in the body. This will also have a positive effect on weight loss, as excess insulin has been shown to contribute to weight gain.
However, during a diet, the type of wine you drink is also important, as different grape drinks have different composition and strength.
Wine
When deciding what to drink on a diet, wine should be preferred. It is important to take into account the calorie content of the wine drink. For example, if you decide to drink champagne, you should know the sugar content of this drink:
- the caloric content of semi-dry champagne is about 80 kcal, per 100 g of such alcohol there are up to 9 g of sugar;
- dry sparkling wine with a slightly lower sugar concentration and a calorie content of up to 70 kcal;
- in semi-sweet champagne up to 89 kcal and 1. 2% sugar;
- in a sweet carbonated drink there are 92 kcal and 1. 5% carbohydrates per 100 g;
- in brut there are 57 kcal and 0. 3 percent carbohydrates.
As you can see, brut can be an ideal choice for an alcoholic drink during a diet, as it is the lowest in calories. Natural wines will be a good alternative to brut, but their calorie content must also be taken into account:
- dessert wines are the most caloric, they contain about 178 kcal per 100 g of drink;
- in strong wines the caloric content reaches 165 kcal;
- sweet varieties of red wine - up to 100 kcal;
- semi-sweet red wines - about 90 kcal;
- semi-dry wine drinks - no more than 80 kcal;
- dry white wine - about 70 kcal.
From this list, the best diet option will be the last option, such as the low calorie one, but you can also afford a glass of dry or semi-dry red wine. People who regularly consume a small amount of red wine have been shown to maintain their youthful skin, heart, blood vessel and joint health for longer. And it's all thanks to the polyphenols in red wine.
Advice:if you want to drink strong or sweet wine, dilute it with drinking water. This will reduce the calorie content of the product and the sugar concentration.
Beer
If you like beer a lot, then dieters are allowed to drink light varieties of this low alcohol drink, as they have fewer calories due to their reduced strength. However, it is not necessary to drink beer with salty snacks, as this will make you want to drink even more, which will force you to drink more beer than you should.
It is worth remembering that when drinking beer there is an increase in urination, which contributes to the leaching of potassium, magnesium and other useful substances from the body. There is also a lot of natural estrogen in beer, which promotes the accumulation of fat. If you choose light beers, pay attention to their calorie content:
- most calories (46 kcal) in beer with a strength of 4%;
- in a drink with a strength of not more than 2. 8%, only 35 kcal;
- in a foamy alcoholic drink with a strength of 1. 8%, only 30 kilocalories.
Recommendation!If you plan to drink the smoothie during your diet, use Diet Coke instead of a regular sugary drink to make it.
Forbidden alcohol in the diet
Vodka, cognac and other strong alcoholic beverages are considered the most high-calorie, so it is better to refuse to use them during the diet. So, for every 100 grams of vodka, there are 260 kcal. It is also worth giving up other alcoholic beverages prepared on the basis of vodka. The number of calories in them is distributed as follows:
- tequila has about 275 kcal;
- aniseed vodka contains 300 kcal;
- sake - 260 kcal;
- rum, gin, tonic - up to 220 kcal;
- whiskey - 280 kcal;
- sweet liqueurs - up to 280 kcal.
If you want to drink as little as possible, try not to drink on an empty stomach. If you order a liqueur or a cocktail, completely forgo the sweet dessert. In general, they drink little liquor and eat nothing, as it is very caloric.