This week I want to discuss alcohol since most of us are doing Dry January.
When we stop drinking alcohol, we not only save money on overpriced drinks when going out, but also allow our bodies the time it needs to heal. Yes, research shows alcohol can help the body but this is 1 glass of red wine a couple times a week max, and let’s be honest, none of us are having just one glass.
Days and weeks of having too much too drink slowly adds up in the body causing your liver to work overtime (shown as elevated AST and ALT levels), our skin starts to feel tired and not as youthful (due to a decrease in collagen production), we may have tummy issues (due to inflammation and a destroyed gut micro biome), getting terrible sleep (alcohol prevents you from getting restful REM sleep), and weight gain.
We gain weight when drinking because the liver is too busy processing and getting rid of the poison we just ingested; yes, alcohol is considered a poison in the body. Since the body put alcohol as top priority, it can’t take the necessary time to properly process the food we eat (I’m of course skipping a lot of heavy science talk but this is the general idea).
To paraphrase Dr. Amitava Dasgupta in the healing process and benefits to Dry January :
After one day of not drinking, you will feel better due to no hangover or any alcohol related acute toxicity.
After one week, the body is starting to repair itself, you feel more relaxed, and sleep better.
After a few weeks, you will continue to feel better and better and see healthier changes to your overall well-being.
At six weeks, the liver is healed and completely back to a normal stage. Doing Dry January will repair roughly 90% of the damages but if you avoid alcohol till the end of February, you will be back to a pre-drinking state.
How do we get through this month of not drinking? Try carbonated water with lemon/lime, kombucha, mocktails, or zero alcohol seltzers! See below for a link to my favorite mocktail, which is having a Dry January sale!
One of my favorite mocktails to make is from Three Spirit, which has a 15% discount when you use the code DRYJAN.
This isn’t an ad, I just really love the product. Check them out at https://us.threespiritdrinks.com