By Dean L. Jones, C.P.M.

There are a number of us who think that the end of the year festivities require consuming lots of alcohol, even though we know so many things go wrong as a consequence.  For starters, drinking alcohol causes the body to increase urinary output like a diuretic, which in turn will bring about dehydration and an electrolyte imbalance.  Hangover is the familiar term that arises from all of the toxic by-products contained in alcohol, pushing a plethora of symptoms, like a dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, dizziness and headache and/or a combination thereof.

The holiday parties make for abundant access to not only alcohol, but also the attraction to eat too much processed sugar, which can yield a matching hostile alcohol consumption health response.  Primarily because processed sugar is in no way nutritional and it actually depletes the body of its vitamin and mineral resources.  Science shows that excessively eating process sugar ties to heart disease, kidney problems, mental disorders, lower IQ, anxiety, aggressive behavior, hyperactivity, depression, eating disorders, fatigue, learning difficulties, and premenstrual syndrome and over 75 other ill-health effects.

Our bodies can handle fruit sugar when eaten with the whole fruit, but not manufactured high fructose corn syrup, which is a potent form of sugar that is sweeter than regular sugar, increases appetite, promotes obesity more than regular sugar, is more addictive than cocaine, and leads to diabetes and an inflammation of the brain.  Processed sugar also feed the candida in the gut that can potentially develop a person into a literal sugar addict and perpetuating the inflammatory state in the body and thereby lead to all kinds of physical tribulations.

This is why I am referencing alcohol and processed sugar in the same discussion, as the forced metabolism of processed sugar and alcohol by the body will accelerate the depletion of B vitamins (particularly, B-1, B-2, B-6, and B-12) and make a hangover feeling even worse.  I know it is counterproductive if it is your goal to drink to get drunk, but for a moment just consider that it takes about 200ml (6.8 ounces) of water to effectively counteract each 30ml (1 ounce) of alcohol.  In any case, drinking and driving is prohibited; however, you can help yourself prevent having a bad hangover and becoming dehydrated.

The most important thing to know is that drinking an alcoholic beverage overwhelms the liver to detoxify the alcohol into a much less harmful substance, which on average takes two hours.  Although the liver is a miracle organ, it is too much to ask to simultaneously carry out the same thing with removing the impurities of processed sugar.  Liver treats the alcohol first, meaning it may be too busy to see your blood glucose levels crashing caused by eating those highly abundant sugary-filled pies, cakes, cookies, cobblers, etc.

www.SugarAlert.com
Mr. Jones is a marketing strategist withthe Southland Partnership Corporation (a public benefit organization), sharing his view on mismanagement practices of packaged foods & beverages.