Vitamins and Alcohol Consumption
Drinking Booze Regularly Can Deplete the Body's Required Nutrients
Everybody talks about achieving optimum health but rarely do we broach the subject of drinkers who need to increase their vitamin intake to compensate for what they lack.
If you love to drink, whether it's binge drinking on weekends or a few drinks tossed back periodically throughout the week while socializing with friends, you probably aren't aware that you're suffering from a serious lack of vitamins and nutrients from day to day.
While the best course of action would be to cut down substantially on the amount of drinking you do or just plain quitting altogether, the reality is that "career drinkers" are going to continue drinking. They may not consider themselves to be outright alcoholics in view of the fact that they manage to excel at their jobs and rarely take a day off to overcome the ravages of a hangover. The fact is that those who drink regularly and routinely are prone to serious depletions in terms of vitamins and nutrients that need replenising on a daily basis.
"The problem is that alcoholic beverages are devoid of vitamins and minerals," says Charles S. Lieber, M.D., director of the Alcohol Research Center for the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Maryland, professor of medicine and pathology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and director of the Alcohol Research and Treatment Center, the liver disease and nutrition section and the gastrointestinal-liver training program at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New York.
"Alcoholic beverages are full of empty calories. Yet if you're a heavy drinker, those empty calories replace other nutrients in the diet.."
How can you combat the effects of alcohol on the system when you aren't prepared to quit drinking? You adopt a holistic approach by giving your body what it needs in terms of vitamins and supplements.
- Multivitamin – A good one, taken daily.
- Vitamin C - taken to the point considered to be "saturation"'; that is, at the point where diarrhea comences. A powerful antitoxin, it has proven to be effective against hepatitis. (Smith, L.H>, ed. Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C, Life Sciences Press, Tacoma, WA, 1988).
- B- Complex - 50 mgs, 6 times daily.
- Chromium - 200 to 400 mcg chromium polynicotinate or chromium picolinate daily.
- L-Glutamine - 2 to 3 grams daily.
- Lecithin - 2 to 5 tablespoons daily.
In addition, drinkers should try to eat well.
"To counteract weight loss and protein deficiency, people with drinking problems should eat between 2,000 and 3,000 calories a day," Dr. Charles H. Halsted, M.D., chief of clinical nutrition and metabolism at the University of California, said. "Most of those calories--about 60 percent--should be in the form of carbohydrates such as breads, pastas and other grains as well as fruits and vegetables."
And that means no junk food.
Of course, if you have a problem with drinking, help is as close as a phone call. The number for the National Alcohol/Drug Abuse Hotline is 1-800-662-HELP. The best choice for your body and your health is to quit drinking altogether.
“Since nutrient levels can vary so widely from person to person, anyone who has a problem with alcohol should have his nutritional status individually evaluated by a doctor, “ says MotherNature.com. “If your doctor doesn't seem to know much about nutrition, you can contact the American Board of Nutrition for a referral to a doctor in your area who does. Write to the American Board of Nutrition, WEBB 234, 1675 University Boulevard, Birmingham, AL35294-3360.”
Until you decide that abstinence really is the best policy when it comes to proper nutrition and optimum health, take your vitamins!
