Happy hour made healthy



Drink to your health? It’s a great promise. But with all the contradictory headlines about alcohol’s health effects, it’s hard to know if that glass a day will keep the doctor away or land you in her office. On the one hand, enjoying the occasional cocktail has been shown to cut the risk for heart disease, stroke and more. But too much tippling is a serious national problem: Alcohol-related illnesses and drunk driving claim nearly 80,000 lives per year, and downing two or more drinks a day has been linked to metabolic syndrome, a predecessor to heart disease—the very condition alcohol is touted to help prevent.

So is alcohol good or bad for you? Like many things in science, the answer is yes…and yes. The benefits accrue with moderate consumption, which is one drink a day for women. “We start to see an increase in health problems in women who have between one and two drinks per day,” says Sharon Wilsnack, Ph.D., professor of neuroscience at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks, who leads an ongoing 30-year study of women and alcohol. The key, then, is sticking to a single drink per day, defined as 12 ounces of beer or 5 ounces of wine or 1 1/2 ounces of hard alcohol.

If only it were that easy. Instead, this guideline raises all sorts of questions. Can I have two drinks tonight if I stay dry tomorrow? Is one drink better than another? Our guide to healthier drinking tackles these questions and more so you can enjoy the party season without worry.

Drunk, defined

Odds are, you know how tipsy feels. Here’s why you feel woozy.

First stop: Your stomach
If you ate beforehand, the food will sit in your stomach for a while and delay the alcohol from moving through your system, according to Sean O’Connor, M.D., professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. If you’re drinking on an empty stomach, the alcohol dumps fairly speedily into the upper intestine, bloodstream and then into…

Your liver
Here, enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenase begin to break down ethanol (the stuff in alcoholic beverages that causes inebriation). Too much ethanol, and your liver can’t filter it fast enough, so it reenters the bloodstream, traveling quickly to…

Your brain
Ethanol is a tiny molecule, small enough to sit in the crevices of the signal-receptor proteins on neural cells. While nestled there, ethanol inhibits the receptor proteins from binding with data-carrying molecules, disrupting communication between neurons. The result: Info is blurred, and several brain functions—speech, memory, judgment and more—are drowned out and slowed down.

Back to your liver
Depending on how much you’ve had to drink, most of the ethanol you consumed makes hundreds of passes around the body before it is eliminated. A healthy liver gets rid of about one drink’s worth per hour; chug more than that and you will get drunk.

Be a mix master

Pouring your own? Shake and stir smart.

DO toss more rocks into the glass. As the ice melts, it increases your drink’s water content, which slows alcohol’s entry into your bloodstream.

DON’T mix it up with energy drinks. Pairing high-caffeine beverages such as Red Bull with spirits can make you feel less buzzed than you are, reports a study at the Federal University of São Paulo in Brazil, which can lead to risky behavior like drunk driving.

DO add fresh fruit or fruit juice. Pomegranate, cranberry and tomato juices or chunks of fresh fruit (as in sangria) add disease-fighting antioxidants.

DON’T make it diet. You’ll stay steady longer if you nix calorie-free soda mixers. They empty out of the stomach faster than regular sodas, so the alcohol enters your system sooner, according to a study published in The American Journal of Medicine.

DO have a glass of water. Before having a second drink, have an H²O chaser. It increases hydration and helps you drink less throughout the evening.

DON’T believe the saying “Beer before liquor, never sicker; liquor before beer, never fear.” Ethanol—as well as its effects—is the same regardless of whether wine, liquor or beer enters your body first.

Do you DUI?

A sobering 57 percent of SELF readers admit to driving when their blood alcohol may have been over the legal limit, and the number of women arrested nationally for drunk driving has risen 29 percent in the past 10 years. Don’t rationalize taking the wheel: Use these solutions to get home safely.

You think: I only had two!
Women have less water in their body than men have, so one drink will spike your blood alcohol more than that of a man your size, says James Fell, senior program director at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Calverton, Maryland. If you had more than one drink per hour, put down your car keys and ask a pal to take the wheel.

You think: But it’s a short drive home
Being close to home can’t save you from the unexpected deer or semi that crosses the yellow line. “Your ability to respond to sudden changes after even two drinks will be diminished regardless of how small the distance,” Fell says. Call a cab, then jog back to pick up your car the next morning—the exercise will help you clear any postparty fog.

You think: Cabs are too expensive
Taxi fare may be $50, but dealing with a citation for driving under the influence could cost you roughly $7,500 in legal fees. Program the number of a local cab company into your cell phone and stow cab fare in a separate spot in your wallet. Strapped for cash? Many communities have affordable safe-ride programs. Call your local police department to find one in your area. —Kelly Mickle

Just how much are you really drinking?

A lot more than you think, shows a study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Maryland; it looked at the alcohol content and size of the average drink poured at 80 different bars and restaurants and found that some had up to three times more alcohol than the standard measure. Could you spot if you’ve been served a supersized cocktail?

Wine: 43% above the recommended amount
People overpour it more than any other drink order. Sip two glasses and you could consume nearly three glasses’ worth of alcohol.Beer: 22% above the recommended amount
Pint glasses average 14 ounces of beer, 2 ounces more than the recommended brewski serving.Martinis: 60% above the recommended amount
A classic martini is heavy on the alcohol, meaning the extra 60 percent packs a mega ethanol wallop.Mixed drinks: 42% above the recommended amount
They contain more alcohol than a 1 1/2-ounce shot of liquor—the amount many recipes call for.

Cocktails, straight up

Still confused about how to make that nightcap a healthy habit? Your quaffing questions, answered

If one drink a day is good for me, but I don’t drink during the week, can I down seven over the weekend?

First, you don’t have to imbibe once a day to get the health benefits, says Meir Stampfer, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Half a drink daily or one every other day can do the same amount of good. Also, consuming seven drinks in one or two days is binge drinking, defined as having four or more drinks on one occasion, which is hard on your liver and puts you at greater risk for alcohol poisoning and liver disease. If you do have more than one drink per day, keep it under three
drinks in one sitting to prevent binge-related health concerns.

What’s the best thing to eat before hitting the town?

Fat and protein, Wilsnack says. All foods help slow down the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream, but snacks such as cheese and unsalted nuts take longer to digest than carbs, delaying the process even more.

Why do my hangovers seem to get worse with age?

Our body loses water content and our liver shrinks over the years, which slows alcohol elimination, Dr. O’Connor says. But these changes typically happen after age 50, so if you’re younger and your hangovers are getting more miserable, you may have a food sensitivity. If you can tolerate vodka but not red wine, for instance, you could be reacting to grape by-products that can cause head pain. Or it may be that your lifestyle no longer indulges a hangover—after all, having a job makes it hard to take a midday nap.

What is the best hangover cure?

A hangover is a combination of alcohol withdrawal, sleep deprivation and dehydration, says Dena Davidson, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine. So the best remedies are the time-tested ones: drinking fluids, sleeping it off and popping aspirin or ibuprofen. That, and not going overboard next time!

Pick your pleasure

Alcohol product labels aren’t required to list nutrition info, but the calories can add up fast and lead to weight gain. Check out how some top-selling brands measure up (when serving sizes are correct), courtesy of the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C.

Drink % Alcohol Calories
Amstel Light 3.5 95
Jose Cuervo Gold
Tequila on the rocks 40 96
Miller Lite 4.2 96
Gallo/Twin Valley
Cabernet Sauvignon 13.3 120
Beringer Chardonnay 13.9 125
Guinness draft 4.2 128
Bacardi Gold
rum and cola 40 132
Absolut Vodka
and cranberry juice 40 149
Heineken 5 150
gin and tonic 40 151
Mike’s Hard Lemonade 4 220
Kevin Cremens
KEYWORDS: Alcohol,Happiness,medical issues
What We're Reading