| The Bad News
Alcohol is the most abused drug in the United States. Prolonged consumption can lead to cellular changes in the liver, heart, brain and muscles and result in cirrhosis, pancreatitis, hypertension, irregular heart beats, stroke, and malnutrition. Moderate drinkers have a higher risk of oral cancer and women who drink have a higher risk of breast cancer. Because alcohol is a highly addictive substance, it has a high potential for abuse.
The Good News
Alcohol in moderation has health benefits. Red wine is a good source of dietary iron, and important mineral that prevents anemia among athletes. Both regular and light beers offer a significant amounts of vitamin B-12, important for vegetarian athletes. Some researchers believe that red wine contains health-protective phenolic compounds that reduce the risk of heart disease.
Alcohol for Athletes
Alcohol is a depressant and offers no edge for athletes (apart from killing pain). You can't be sharp, quick and drunk - particularly if drinking keeps you up late at night and continues to getting too little sleep before that next mornings event. Although you may be tempted to have a pre-event drink to calm anxiety, alcohol has a deleterious effect on reaction time, hand-eye coordination, accuracy, balance and overall coordination. It does not improve - and may decrease - strength, power, speed and endurance.
Alcohol is absorbed directly from the stomach into the bloodstream, appearing within 5 minutes after consumption. Post-exercise alcohol on an empty stomach can quickly contribute to a drunken stupor. A runner once commented, "I'd rather enjoy the natural high from exercise than get brought down by a few post-game beers." Your liver breaks down alcohol at a fixed rate - less than 4 ounces of wine or a can of beer per hour. Exercise does not hasten that process.
Alcohol has a dehydrating effect - bad for athletes, and also bad for hangovers. If you are destined to drink, at least have a glass of water for every beer. Dehydration is a major problem for many athletes. Water loss of 4 to 5 percent of body weight can result in a 20 to 30 percent in work capacity.
Hot tubs and alcohol are a bad combination. The hotter your body, the drunker it may get. Alcohol impairs your ability to control your body temperature, and the high temperature heightens the body's response to alcohol. Cold temperatures are also a problem. Skiers and alcohol can be a bad combination.
The calories in alcohol can make you fat. People who drink to consume alcohol calories on top of their regular caloric intake. These excess calories promote body fat accumulation, particularly in the trunk area - the well known "beer belly." A study with subjects who ate a standard breakfast and then an appetizer before lunch - about 350 calories of either white wine and high-fat foods, or vegetables juice and low-fat foods showed they ate about 200 more calories at lunch following the alcohol appetizer, and did not compensate for this overfeeding at dinner time. The bottom line: it's harder to feel full when alcohol becomes a part of the diet because the alcohol stimulates the appetite (Tremblay, AJCN 1996, 63:479-82). If you are trying to maintain a lean and mean machine, you will be better off abstaining than imbibing.
Research suggests that people who consume alcohol tend to choose a lower portion of their dietary energy from carbohydrates and more fat - bad news for athletes who need carbs to maintain well-fueled muscles. Alcohol Abuse: in the general population, problems associated with drinking occur in about 16-24 percent of men and 5 percent of women. This varies with age: people younger than 45 have higher rates of alcohol problems than do older people. There is a strong familial component with 15-16 percent of current drinkers reporting a family history of alcoholism. Among a group of serious runners, men with a parent or sibling having a drinking problem reported at least twice as many occasions of binge drinking than women.
Because of the detrimental effects of alcohol on performance, on might think that serious athletes would be less likely to drink alcohol, but this is not the case. A study of serious recreational runners suggest that runners tend to drink more than their sedentary counterparts. Interestingly, the runners who at one time had a drinking problem were less likely to drink. (Gutgesell, MSSE 28(8);1063, 1996). They traded their addiction to alcohol for a healthier addiction - exercise. It's even better than beer without the buzz!
What's One Drink?
One drink is defined as:
- 12 ounce can of beer
- 12 ounce wine cooler
- 4 ounce glass of wine
- 1.25 ounce, or shot of liquor (straight or in a mixed drink)
What's Moderate Drinking?
Moderate drinking is 4-5 ounces of an 86 proof beverage, or about 2-3 drinks for men, and half of that for women. The best answer may lie in your past ability to keep consumption within socially and medically acceptable bounds.
Nancy Clark, MS, RD, is a nutrition counselor at Boston's Sports Medicine in Brookline, MA. Nancy is the author of the newly revised Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, Second Edition.
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