It may come too late for the millions of people around the world who
have over-indulged during Christmas and New Year celebrations, however
those watching their weight may be grossly underestimating the impact
that alcohol can have on their waistlines and dieters are best to banish
the booze if they want to shed the pounds.
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) claim that one of the biggest
mistakes when dieting is forgetting the hundreds of ‘hidden’ calories
within alcoholic drinks and that alcohol is only second to fat in
regards to calorie content. Fat contains 9kcal/g, whilst alcohol has
7kcal/g. Even protein and carbohydrates only contain 4kcal/g, whilst
fibre contains 2kcal/g.
Due to the fact so many of us are not paying attention to our alcohol calorie intake, the WCRF have now made an online calorie-counter
available that lists the calorie content in various commonly consumed
alcoholic drinks. Therefore, people are able see how many calories they
are taking in and also roughly how much exercise would be required to
burn off these ‘empty’ calories that offer no nutritional value.
For instance, just drinking one large glass of wine means you are
taking in a whopping 178 calories and this is the equivalent of eating
two chocolate digestive biscuits. However, it gets worse – it would take
half an hour of brisk walking to burn-off that one glass of wine.
Another popular tipple, especially in men, is a pint of lager. This
drink though contains an incredible 250 calories. This is roughly the
same as three chocolate digestive biscuits and would need 53 minutes of
brisk walking to burn this off!
Being overweight or obese is the biggest risk of cancer after
smoking, and in reducing alcoholic drinks, people will be more able to
lose weight and thus reduce their cancer risk. In fact, it is estimated
that even drinking just one pint of beer daily increases a person’s risk
of bowel and liver cancer by approximately a fifth. In the UK alone,
over 20,000 cases of cancer each year are attributed to alcohol.
Kate Mendoza, head of health information at WCRF, commented: “The
calories in alcoholic drinks account for a significant proportion of a
drinker’s calorie consumption while providing little, if any,
nutritional benefit. Cutting down on drinking can have a big effect on
weight loss or maintaining a healthy weight. Recent reports have shown
that people are unaware of calories in drinks and don’t include them
when calculating their daily consumption. This is important from a
cancer perspective because, after smoking, being overweight or obese is
the biggest risk factor. There is also strong scientific evidence that
alcohol itself is a cancer risk factor, possibly through damaging our
DNA, in cancers of the breast, bowel, mouth, oesophagus and liver.”
As we begin 2013, many of the UK will beginning their New Year’s Resolutions, which usually include stopping smoking as we discussed just a few days ago. Another popular resolution is to lose weight.
Cancer Research-led research however found that nearly four out of 10
people ditch their New Year’s resolutions within a fortnight and only
one in 11 manages to keep their resolution to half a year.
If you want to lose weight it would be recommended to drastically
limit your alcoholic drinks in addition to eating healthy. This
healthier lifestyle will be highly effective in conjunction with a
medically proven weight loss aid such as XLS-Medical, Alli, or the
prescription medication Xenical. All three weight loss aids are
available today from Medical Specialists at incredibly low prices.
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