Can You Have Your Beer and Drink it Too?

Who doesn’t want to be able to have their cake (or beer) and eat (or drink) it too?

I love the quote, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” It makes me think of the trade-offs and cost of the choices you make. Who doesn’t want to have the best of both worlds?

The problem is we often can’t have it both ways, for the trade-off and cost doesn’t allow for it.

In a literal sense, cake comes with a high calorie, high sugar and fat content. Eating it requires a trade off in order to fight off the negative effects on your health and waistline.

Like it is with cake, we want to have our beer, wine, or margarita for example and drink it too. It’s a choice, one choice of many we are challenged with everyday. Everyday we decide what we eat, drink, and choose to do with our time and energy.

So can one really have their beer and drink it too?

When it comes to alcohol, I find that most people either don’t realize or care to know (but should) the calorie and sugar content of their drinks.

As with food, it comes down to making good choices and it’s important to be aware of what you consume. With beer, the less calories the better, choose light over regular or heavy stouts.

It’s a total calorie thing too. For example, if you like to drink a higher calorie beer but you drink less of them than you would with light beers, it would be your best choice if you drink less overall calories.

Dry red wine is the best choice with wine, with less sugar than sweeter wines and more antioxidants than white wines. With mixed drinks, opt for low calorie and low sugar mixers, and avoid frozen drinks (high sugar content).

The trick is to be smart not only about what you’re drinking, but about what and when you’re eating as well.

If you know you’re going to go out for drinks in the evening, then plan for it calorie wise. Try to eat a little lighter that day. Go less on carbs and fat so you have some wiggle room with your calories.

Try not to drink with meals, or keep it to a minimum. The calories you get from alcohol can add up to a meal’s worth in no time. In addition, your body uses the calories from alcohol first before it uses any from food, then any excess is will likely get stored as body fat.

In general, alcohol slows down your metabolism and increases enzymes that store body fat.

Eating pizza and beer together isn’t a wise choice, as good as it my taste. Even with what’s considered a low carb beer.

The biggest problem after someone drinks alcohol is typically the calories consumed afterwards. The more they drink, the less likely they are to make healthy food choices. They more one drinks, the more one typically eats and often eat late at night as well.

A few drinks isn’t so bad calorie wise, but stopping at a drive thru for a hamburger and fries is. Of course this is even worse if you do this right before going to sleep.

Don’t skip meals during the day. Eat a light meal with lean protein and vegetables before having drinks.

It will help keep up your metabolism, keep your blood sugar stable, and help reduce cravings and the urge to overeat. Drinking as little as possible is ideal since higher levels of alcohol will effect your brain’s ability to make good decisions.

More than that though, it’s knowing alcohol’s huge effect on your hormones. Drinking alcohol can lower blood sugar, increase estrogen levels, slow metabolism and increase fat storage.

Those effects added to one’s typical poor dietary choices after a few cocktails is what’s more likely to equate to the beer bellies, inflated love handles, and jiggly thighs.

If you’re careful about what you eat and drink, don’t make a habit of drinking too much, then you don’t have much to worry about.