Is alcohol good if you can have some then how much can you have are they
healthy is it a no no? I'll explain coming right up
Hey I'm doctor Ekberg with Wellness For Life and if you'd like to truly master
health by understanding how the body really works make sure you subscribe and
hit that notification bell so that you don't miss anything. A lot of patients
ask me if they can drink when they're on a nutrition program, so I wanted to share
with you some of my opinions about alcohol. First of all I'd really like to
emphasize that this is not okay I'm not saying that alcohol is alright but I
want to say that if you're going to drink I think that there are certain
things that you want to think about so that you minimize the detrimental
effects of alcohol so first of all alcohol is a result of fermentation so
alcohol is not a poison per se it's not like aspartame or sucralose or arsenic
or plutonium those are poisons there is no purpose there is no place for them in
the body alcohol however is a natural product that's a result of fermentation
and as a result we have something in the liver called alcohol dehydrogenase we
have an enzyme that can break down alcohol and turn it into useable
substances however in nature that happens very very small amounts and when
we drink an alcoholic beverage we're drinking something that has been
amplified it has been increased tremendously and therefore if we drink a
lot then it becomes a burden on the liver so the alcohol dehydrogenase that
we have it's made to take care of small amounts of alcohol like we have in
fermentation of sauerkraut or yogurt or kombucha but when we make alcohol and we
distill it now there's a lot more and the liver has to work really really
hard and it takes the place of other work that the liver has to do plus it
also depletes certain B vitamins if we drink we should drink in moderation
so the things that we get from alcohol from alcoholic drinks is first of all of
course alcohol but then there can be other things along side so we might get
grain we might get gluten we might get starches we might get sugar high
fructose corn syrup artificial colors artificial flavors artificial sweeteners
even so we want to learn which drinks have what so that if we want to have a
little bit of alcohol then we avoid as much as possible of the other things
that are in there so if we have a beer for example that is I happen to like the
flavor of beer but I don't drink beer because it has so many bad things for us
as alcohol it has grain it has gluten and it has partially digested starches
so this is like a triple quadruple whammy on the body and there's nothing
good about it if we have a mixed drink it is guaranteed to have large amounts
of sugar or high fructose corn syrup if you have a margarita in a restaurant God
knows what's in that mix that they give you there's some artificial colors and
flavors and high-fructose corn syrup and on and on and on so if you drink you
want to avoid all the things that are grain that is beer you don't avoid
anything sugary because a lot of these drinks like Cointreau or Grand Marnier or
the sweet the course or the flavored vodkas they're gonna have tremendous
amounts of sugar added man-made sugar in them so if you're gonna drink
I would suggest drink something natual something that has been fermented
and aged and has interacted with wood that there's a certain culture around it
maybe dry wine white or red dry wine the sweet wines are gonna have sugar the
dry wines are going to have very little sugar 2 3 4 grams maybe per glass or
maybe even better vodka whiskey gin cognac has zero sugar in them because
they're distilled so they have some flavors they have flavors from oak they
have flavors from whatever they interacted with or however they're
developed and cultured but they have no added sugar and if you can make a mixed
drink you can make it with Zevia so you can have some of your the the mixed
drinks that you enjoy but use Zevia which is a soft drink sweetened only
with stevia it has no coloring it has no flavoring nothing artificial in there it
is clear so it looks kind of funny if you get a Coke or an orange soda or
something because there's no color in it but that's a good thing so if you get a
drink I would also suggest that you have no more than one to two drinks per day
and that you also make sure that you have at least two days a week that are
clean days where you don't drink at all this would lessen the burden on your
body and make it more easy for your for your liver and your body to to cope with
this so don't drink because you heard that there's some health benefit to it
the possible health benefit from drinking is that you relax when you
drink and your body heals better when you drink then when you're stressed but
you can also accomplish those things with relaxation exercises and meditation
and so forth if you're going to drink make sure that you really enjoy it and
that you like the flavor and that you do it for the
right reasons if it's a good wine with some food or if it's a nice social
gathering or some interaction then I think it's okay again this is my opinion
and this these recommendations would be for someone who is reasonably healthy if
you're trying to recover from something that's a different story if you're
trying to recover from a digestive disorder or from some kind of liver
issue or from some hormonal issue or a thyroid problem then I would say that
the less that you have the better so in some future videos I'll probably try to
come up with some recipes and show you how to make maybe a margarita or some
mixed drinks with Zevia that would give you basically zero sugar that are
still very very good drinks please share this content this these videos are for
people to learn more about the body these things that we all need to know if
you're going to drink don't drink beer it is probably the worst thing out there
it's up there with donuts and if you enjoy this sort of content make sure
that you subscribe and you hit that notification bell so that we can keep
this content coming your way thanks for watching