Day 19: Eating before drinking
Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet
I’m totally delighted to have Sophie from Mostly Eating guest blogging today.
Sophie has some wise words about controlling those alcohol fuelled food blow-outs.
Does this sound like a familiar scenario? You’ve had a wonderfully healthy week, brimming with fruit and vegetables, splendidly low fat and wholegrain-tastic. What better way to round off the week than with a quiet drink with your friends, or maybe just a few glasses of wine at home.
Fast forward and it’s the end of the evening and you’ve drunk a few (or many more) units than planned and eaten a deep fried dinner with three times the calories of your normal evening meal.
Your secret weapon to avoid this scenario is to have a small snack about half an hour before any alcohol passes your lips.
Why does this work?
- Having some food in your stomach slows down how quickly your stomach empties. When you drink alcohol not long after eating a meal or snack the alcohol takes longer to get from your mouth to your bloodstream
- Alcohol lowers the level of glucose in your blood stream which in turn makes you feel hungry (remember that slight dizzy feeling and the urge to buy extra large packets of crisps?). A small snack before you start to drink gives you a bit of a buffer before you start to feel really hungry.
Five great reasons to have a snack before you drink:
- You will feel the effects of the alcohol much less quickly, increasing your ability to choose food wisely and regulate your alcohol intake across the evening
- The booze munchies will descend more slowly, giving you more willpower to choose something moderately healthy for dinner
- You will be protecting your long term health; the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, mental health problems and certain cancers all go up with excessive alcohol intake
- Alcohol is the gift that keeps on giving; this is an excellent way to avoid a hangover
If you are trying to lose weight it might seem very tempting to skip your pre-alcohol snack but I promise you it will earn its calories back. I’m suggesting that you take in an additional 150kcal (600kJ) or so; all this snack needs to do to have earnt its place is to keep you that bit more sober so that you have one less drink or choose the pasta with tomato sauce rather than the full fat cream sauce. Remember too that alcohol can easily lower your blood glucose levels well into the next day, leaving you hungry and susceptible to bad food choices.
Easy pre-drink snacks
If you can, try to choose solid foods which slow down the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream more than liquid foods.
- A slice of toast with peanut butter or jam
- Yogurt with fruit
- A few oatcakes with hommous
- A small bowl of cereal
- A small sandwich (one slice of bread is fine) with low fat filling
Try eating a pre-drink snack before going out this week – and let us know how you feel the next day
Sophie is a nutritionist from Oxford, England, where she lives with her husband and two cats. At Mostly Eating Sophie writes about fitting together healthy eating and sustainable food choices.
Scales photograph by Benjamin Earwacker and greasy breakfast by Ronny Stephan.
19 August, 2008
Comments
Brilliant, Sophie! Incredibly sound advice.
“Alcohol is the gift that keep on giving…” And how. Those hangovers are the very worst kind.
I hate to be critical, but I’ve heard this advice so many times before, and I just can’t say I like it. If I’m having an alcoholic drink, it’s because I want to feel the alcohol. If I didn’t want to feel the alcohol, I would happily drink water and enjoy zero calories instead of a highly caloric alcoholic drink. So if I eat a snack before drinking, it’s just giving me more calories, because I need to have more to drink in order to feel a buzz. If I know I’m going to drink, I prefer to eat a bit lighter earlier in the day, so not only will less alcohol go further, but I’ve also created a bit of a deficit in case I get the munchies later. Healthy? Not really, but if I’m doing it infrequently, I think it’s okay.
i think this is gerat advice. i hate going out on an empty stomach exactly for the reasons you mention, Sophie: i know i will end up eating something dodgy, and i know that any alcohol will have an increased effect, quicker. which doesn’t exactly make for a long, fun-filled night (i’m not a huge drinker at the best of times!).
Alcohol makes me lose my willpower. It makes me more susceptible to that extra spring roll, dessert etc. The pre drinking snack is a great idea. It makes you fuller and less likely to graze. I find what helps me most of all with alcohol is to have a plan of action before going to an event. If I have rules to guide my actions, I find I personally react better. E.g. 3 glasses of wine no more, only entrees that are not fried. Etc. Even better is to avoid the alcohol altogether, drive to the event. Or to pace drinking with 1 glass of wine then water.
This doesn’t always work, and I struggle with this a lot! So any tips are great.
Great advice, Sophie! Unfortunately, my problem with alcohol isn’t eating that night, it’s the next day when I crave fatty, salty foods. Fried egg sandwiches and salt & vinegar crisps in particular!
Laura – quite true, having something to eat does delay the alcohol buzz which is why people sometimes do go for your strategy of deliberately eating light beforehand. Works great if you are perfectly capable of having two drinks, feeling the buzz then stopping. For a lot of people I think this often turns out to be a false energy deficit – by drinking earlier your decision making is wonky (for want of a better word!) for much longer, hence you can still end up taking in more calories in total.
Lindsay clare – it sounds like you’ve already got this one figured out. It’s even more useful to have a pre-drinking strategy when you’re not a big drinker :-)
sue – I find the pre drinking snack strategy helps me and has helped other people (especially those trying to eat better and/or lose weight). I like your ideas of alternating drinks and driving (the ultimate hangover deterent!). Another tip is to stay out of the whole thing of buying rounds so that you don’t try to keep up with everybody else and setting a mental drink curfew after which you switch to soft drinks (I find the latter works well for me).
Wendy – I know what you mean about food cravings the next day. It is largely down to the low blood sugar but it’s a bit annoying that your body won’t necessarily crave what will make you feel a bit better (some carbohydrates). Sometimes a small snack before you go to bed can normalise your blood glucose levels a bit and stop you feeling quite so bad (or ravenous!) the next day (though it’s amazing how quickly those alcohol induced extra calories start to stack up when you add in the midnight snack and next day!). Eating a snack before you go out should help this a little just by helping you not to drink so much in the first place.
Thanks for a useful and informative post Sophie – and also for answering the questions so eloquently . . . now I’ve dug your answer out of my spam folder – sorry about that.
I always try to have a small snack before going out, usually a slice of toast. Like Sue I also try to set a limit on how much I’m going to drink that night and Sophie, I like your idea of a curfew.
I also use the alternating alcohol and soft drink strategy a lot. Means I can enjoy those couple of glasses of wine, while still feeling bright and energetic the next day.
Seems like good advice. Some people swear by bananas in the morning to up their potassium levels, get some carbs and apparently it stops you feeling guilty about whatever you did! I dont know if I dreamed that one?!!!
pre-drink snacks / meals are always a great way to consume booze less and feel better for it the next day, as an experienced heavy drinker i personally recomment a foot-long subway club sandwich with all the trimmings. Soaks the beer right up and doest make you feel too bloated – like pasta or something more stogdy can.
You have to be careful about how much you eat as well, for the simple reason that if you’re packing back the drink with friends, it can lead to that bloated feeling and on to being physically sick.
The only real way out of a hangover is not to drink, but food before hand is always a good way to give you more stamina for the night and a better feeling in the morning. Great adivce Sophie:)
Unfortunately i couldnt follow this in my week long festival binge i’ve just been on – 10 to 15 pints a day with spirits on top in the evenings – 4 days later i’m still trying to de-tox!
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