This will not be a popular blog post for those who enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or an ice cold beer at the ballgame. However, I should make you aware that there are conflicting studies about the connection between acid reflux and alcohol. Some believe that alcohol contributes to acid reflux by relaxing the lower esophageal sphincter (the body part that closes off the esophagus from the stomach) so it gets lazy and lets the contents back up.
In addition, there is an indirect connection because of alcohol’s effects on weight gain and eating habits. We do know that excess pounds and poor eating do contribute to acid reflux. I ran across some statistics from my favorite food store, My Fit Foods, that you may not know.
Immediate damage:
- 1 shot of alcohol is about 100-150 calories. It takes about 2 miles of fast cardio to burn off.
- 1 average glass of wine, about 6 oz., is 300 calories or so. It takes about 3 miles of fast cardio to burn it off.
- 1 average size margarita is about 500 calories. It takes 5 miles of cardio to burn off.
- All alcohol increases insulin levels, making you store most of it as body fat when you consume it. Add that alcohol to a sugary blend like a Margarita or Hurricane and you’re packing on fat.
Longer term damage:
- In addition to the excess calories alcohol puts in your body, alcohol also depresses your metabolism for up to 16 hours after drinking it, causing even more weight gain.
- This metabolic depression means that you’ve got to tack on another 2 or 3 miles to all the values above to burn off the calories that you now temporarily slowed metabolism neglected to.
- Most people also tend to eat starchy foods when they drink alcohol, to nurse the fatigue and sluggishness some people can feel the following day.
- This extra carbohydrate consumption not only adds extra unneeded calories, but since it results in such a high insulin spike, most of those extra calories will be stored as body fat.
So…what to do? If you absolutely cannot go without your wine, beer, marguerita, etc., moderation should be the key. Try experimenting with reducing your alcohol intake to see if your acid reflux improves. Also, drink water at the same time to dilute the effects. If you are drinking red wine for its heart benefits, try a Resveratrol supplement instead.
To Your Health!
If you are fed up with taking acid reflux medication, check out Heartburn No More, a compilation of 11 years of trial and error which has helped many people. The author also gives you 8 bonuses including one-on-one counseling.
