Menu

Alcohal is a carbohydrate?

by Kris
(Canada)

You said that Alcohal is a carbohydrate, what kind of alcohal are you talking about? Because whisky brings down the blood sugar level.

Comments for Alcohal is a carbohydrate?

Click here to add your own comments

Mar 30, 2012
 Alcohal is a carbohydrate?
by: Wray

Hi Kris Not knowing the comment you are referring to, I can't say with any accuracy why I said that. It was obviously a generalisation, as some alcohols do not contain carbs. For instance the spirits don't fall into this category, whereas wines and beers do. But all alcohols, be they spirits, wines or beers, do have a calorific value, see here, which gets added to the total daily caloric intake. There is a paradox to drinking alcohol. Studies have found it increases appetite prior to a meal, so people tend to eat more, see here. This is probably because it drops blood glucose levels, see here. But it doesn't appear to increase weight gain, certainly in men. One reason given it is increases the metabolic rate, which also causes thermogenesis. There is another paradox here too. In men it doesn't appear to affect weight gain, see here. But in women it affects hormone levels, see here and here. It decreases progesterone levels and increases androgen levels, both the total testosterone and free testosterone become higher. Testosterone is notorious at increasing visceral fat, which causes abdominal fat gain, see here and here. The lowered progesterone, higher testosterone probably accounts for the increased risk in breast cancer risk among women, see here and here. Higher testosterone is also associated with an increased risk for Insulin Resistance and heart disease, see here. Incidentally sugar itself brings down blood glucose levels, which prompts the adrenals to produce adrenaline to bring it up again fast. Take care Wray

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Progesterone faq.

Share this page:
Find this page helpful? Please tell others. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Search over 8,400 pages on this site...