This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without judgment,

pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hi, this is Annie Grace and welcome to this naked mind podcast. Earlier this week I was asked to speak at a live event in London.

The one year no beer, one day live event, which was really exciting. I couldn't make it there in person. I would have loved to, but it did not.

It was not good timing for me. So I was actually beamed in via Skype and it was really cool. So I got to share a topic that I've just done a bunch of research on.

And I thought, you know, what better place to share this research that I've just done than on this podcast because it's so interesting.

And especially at this time of year because we are all, you know, early summer we're thinking about bathing suit season, maybe not if you're in Australia or South Africa, but definitely in, you know, the Northern hemisphere.

We're thinking about bathing suit season. Most people are thinking about losing a bit of weight.

And so today I want to talk about the three main reasons why alcohol makes us fat according to science.

So first let's start with what's not true. And I have been even a victim to this persistent myth, but there is this persistent myth that alcohol is sugar or the alcohol turns to sugar in the body.

And this has been widely accepted as common knowledge, but it's actually not true yet. Alcohol can certainly make you fat.

So how exactly does this work? First of all, don't get me wrong. Most alcoholic drinks contain a lot of sugar and carbohydrates.

For example, one pint of cider contains almost as much sugar as the World Health Organization recommends as your daily total allowance of sugar.

And additives and mixers, they're all chock full of sugar. Margarita can contain between 30 and 150 grams of sugar.

And around 700 calories, some margaritas, if you go up to like the 32 answers, I know I drink some of those in my day.

There's up to 12 to 1500 calories in a single margarita. So there's certainly a sugar rush when you drink most things and a huge sugar component in drinking alcohol overall.

But the alcohol itself, if you look at the label, it does not contain sugar. Now this myth originated because while alcohol is not technically sugar,

if you read the nutritional label, the confusion started because some experts have said that alcohol is metabolized as sugar.

And while again, that's not technically true, some aspects of truth brings us to reason number one.

Alcohol, in fact, is more quickly stored as fat than even excess calories from sugar or carbohydrates or protein or in the right circumstances, even than fat itself.

And this is why alcohol has a high calorie content, but it's completely devoid of nutrients.

In fact, aside from fat, ethanol, the macronutrient, or ethanol, which is what alcohol is, is the macronutrient, which is just another word for carbohydrates fat.

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