Many people claim that alcohol can gain weight. How true are such judgments, are there calories in alcohol, or are there other reasons for the appearance of a “beer belly”?

What about stronger drinks? Considering ethyl alcohol, studying its features, it is worth noting a lot of interesting facts.

The energy value of alcohol for the human body

The bulk of the nutrients used by the human body is extracted from proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Proteins are used to build muscle, but can also be used as a power source when there are no other options. Actively used to generate energy are carbohydrates, fats. With excess, they can be deposited as fat mass, form extra pounds. However, the listed categories of substances are not the only ones from which the human body is able to produce nutrients, energy. Speaking of alcohol, it’s worth saying right away: the human body is able to break it down, extracting the energy necessary for their own needs.

Interesting fact: a small percentage of people are not able to digest alcohol, this is an individual feature of the body that is transmitted genetically. They should not drink alcohol at all - excesses are fraught with a severe hangover.

How does alcohol breakdown?

Responsible for cleavage, subsequent digestion, the enzyme is produced primarily by the liver, being, respectively, in its cells. In the process of ethanol oxidation with this substance, acetic aldehyde appears.It is toxic, it is because of it that attacks of a severe hangover sometimes manifest themselves. However, aldehyde is not the final product of the processing of alcohol in the human body, being just an intermediate.

Next comes another enzyme that can convert the aldehyde to acetic acid. It is present in normal metabolism even when a person does not drink alcohol at all, because carbohydrates are also oxidized during processing precisely to it. Thus, alcohol also has its nutritional value, alcohol is digested by the body into the same “raw material” as regular carbohydrates.

What is the actual calorie content of alcohol?

Having realized that alcohol is successfully digested by the human body due to enzymes present in the liver, a person will probably be interested in what is the calorie content of this product. It is quite high in practice: 100 gr. pure alcohol provide 700 kcal. To understand what it is in practice, you need to compare the indicator with other products. The meat contains approximately 400 kcal per 100 g. product, pure fat - 900 kcal for the same weight. As a result, a double stack of a 40-degree drink will bring 230 kcal to the body, beer will give approximately the same volume per bottle. And liquor will be even more high-calorie, because it contains a lot of sugar. It can provide up to 350 kcal. But dry wines, both red and white, give only 70 kcal at maximum.

Considering the above, it can be understood that the nutritional value of alcohol is really approaching zero, because in its pure form alcohol does not contain proteins, fats or carbohydrates. But it has an energy value, moreover, very significant.

What does empty calories mean?

Based on the fact that the energy from alcohol does not come from substances useful to the body, it is customary to call the calories transferred to them “empty”. Indeed, in alcohol there is no protein that forms muscles, nor can it be deposited directly in fat. But it gives the person energy - you can see that drunk people usually behave more actively. Getting the so-called "empty calories", the body seeks to use them in the first place, saving other nutrients.

Nature is rational, a reasonable approach is observed in this case too - carbohydrates, fats that are already in the body cease to be used, the body immediately rebuilds to the maximum available and useless “fuel” in terms of accumulation. Also, at the same time, the synthesis of muscle tissue stops - athletes know that taking even a small dose of alcohol, but regularly, they exclude the possibility of rapid muscle gain.

Alcohol cannot be deposited in the form of fat on its own, but its regular presence in the body allows you to switch to a more accessible and useless source of energy for future storage, leaving reserves for later - this is how the beer belly is formed. And he stimulates appetite, which leads to overeating in a state of intoxication.

Thus, alcohol is really high-calorie, but there are no proteins, fats and carbohydrates in it. It’s just that the human body can digest it and use it as a source of energy.