Many of us often forget to include alcoholic drinks when watching what we eat. It is easy for calories from alcohol to add up quickly and unnoticed, as they are being consumed as a liquid

One gram of alcohol provides seven calories (7kcal), compared with 9kcal per gram for fat, and 4kcal per gram for carbohydrate and protein. One unit of alcohol contains eight grams or 10ml of alcohol, which provides 56kcal. However, other ingredients in alcoholic drinks, such a sugar, cream and fruit juice, can add more calories.

Alcohol is also an appetite stimulant, which can lead to overeating at mealtimes and late at night. To achieve and maintain a healthy weight it is best to moderate our alcohol intake. To provide all the nutrients needed to maintain health and reduce the risk of disease, a healthy balanced diet containing a variety of foods is needed.

FACT: Drinking alcohol also reduces the amount of fat our bodies burn for energy. The primary effect of alcohol on the body is not so much how much of it gets stored as fat, but how it shuts down the body’s ability to access your fat stores for energy. Basically, this means carbohydrates and fat are prevented from being burnt as energy because alcohol becomes the preferred energy source of the body, therefore them carbohydrates and fats have no choice but to be stored by the body leading to unwanted weigh gain.  Never a good idea to have late night Kebab of burger or chips after a night on the town as with all the alcohol in your system and your bodies inability to use these fats and carbs as energy there is only one place for all those calories to go ……Body FAT stores.