Alcoholic people : gain or lose weight?

Alcohol is a very calorie drink.

As a result, alcohol should swell the people who consume a lot. What?

This is the reverse happens: it's not obesity that threatens the heavy drinkers but undernutrition.

How to explain this phenomenon ?

Alcohol, high energy

Each gram of alcohol provides 7 calories, against 4 with carbohydrates (sugars) and proteins and 9 for lipids (fats). Moreover, many alcoholic drinks do not contain water and alcohol, but also a lot of carbohydrates. This is the case for example of brandy that provides 30 g of carbohydrates per 100 ml, or fortified wines such as port, Muscat, amaretto containing 14-15 g / 100 ml. As for the beer, it contains malt and brings 4 g of carbohydrates per 100 ml.

Returning to alcoholic beverages known (as opposed to alcoholic drinks that contain lots of carbohydrates and more), be aware that a liter of wine at 12 ° C gives 96 g of pure alcohol, or 972 calories.

In other words, people who drink the equivalent of a liter of wine a day should gain weight, up to 96 g per day. Now the opposite is true, the heavy drinkers not fatter than nondrinkers, they even have a body mass index (BMI) slightly lower than the national average.

How to explain that heavy drinkers did not gain weight?

For a long time this has been attributed to the fact that alcoholic people eat less than others. But it is rather the opposite is observed.

The studies agree: drinking large consumers and abstainers have no contributions in proteins, fats and carbohydrates that differ. Some studies even show, probably due to more frequent anxiety among alcoholics, their energetic contributions are higher. Alcohol drinkers generally eat more protein and fat (meat, cheese, oil ...) than abstainers. So if they eat more energy, they should be bigger and have a higher BMI.

The explanation is metabolic

Alcohol acts as "empty calories" that are not accounted for in the energy balance and does not account for the weight gain. Alcohol consumed by regular drinkers is metabolized in a separate, specific system, the energy is not stored but burnt.

In addition, alcohol indirectly stimulates the systems which produce heat and increases cardiac output. These reactions help to increase the energy expenditure of rest.

Thus alcoholics are not likely to become obese, despite their high caloric intake, but rather exposed to the risk of malnutrition.

The heavy drinkers at risk of malnutrition

Malnutrition affect 15 to 20% of alcoholics.

It is due to a deficiency of certain micronutrients (calcium, iron, folic acid, antioxidant vitamins ...), to reduce their uptake, alteration of metabolism, damage to the pancreas, liver, etc.