Effect of Alcohol

This might sound a bit strange, but maybe it does have relevance for more than a few cyclists.

I train really hard throughout the week and put in about 10 hours or so a week in the lead up to the Argus.

Problem is that at my age (38 and with the work pressures, I like to wind down the day with a toot or two..... (whiskey with water, or sometimes with coke light) and on weekends...after those LSD rides or a race, a couple of cold castles. (and finishing the day with a whiskey or two.)

So, my concern or question is, .......to what extent does the alcohol or even the mixer (coke light) have an effect on my training program or overall performance. Note that I don't drink the day before a race or if really important race, two days.

 

Alcohol has no beneficial impact on training or performance. The first drink that should go down your throat after a training ride or race should be something to replace lost fluids and electrolytes, and that also contains "fuel" or carbos (CHO), such as a sportsdrink. Beer, which many people think is a good scource of carbs, does none of he above. Alcolhol is metabolically broken down in the liver and not used by the muscles. Alchohol is also a diuretic (tends to make you pee alot), meaning that it will impede rehydration after exercise. It also increases blood pressure and heart rate, and decreases blood glucose and muscle glycogen levels (none of which you need after exercise). Alcohol also interferes with the absorption of vitamins and minerals.

Taken from Pro-Trainer Online

I suggest you forget alcohol before and immediately after exercise. Although it might seem the "in-thing" to gulp down a beer after a long and hard race with your mates in celebration, you are doing yourself more harm than good.
Have that glass of whiskey or red wine at night, when you know that you won't be exercising shortly afterwards

Here is another nice article regarding alcohol and exercise > click here

Coca-Cola is a quick source of energy, because of its high sugar and caffeine content.
Coke Lite, on the other hand, contains artificial sweetener, which is believed to be carcinogenic i.e. produces or incites cancer.

 

I know from experience that a couple of beers after a ride, instead of lots of water, leaves me feeling great for about a half hour and then pretty crappy! I know its the alcohol and the dehydrationthat leads to this crappy feeling. This leaves me wondering about non alcoholic beers and malt brews as "recovery" drinks. Remove the alcohol and you have a great source of complex carbs, water and yeast. It is similar to pasta in liquid form. What am I missing?

 

The alcohol itself makes up alot of the carbo content in beer. Remove that, and you have lost a big portion of the carbo content anyway.

 

I am not so sure that a non alcoholic beer has little carbohydrate. I'll keep looking though. Unfortuantely, the Clausthauser in the fridge doesnt have any information about its content on the bottle. Anyone else have comments of info.

 

Let's re-phrase: Alcohol itself cannot really be classified as a 'carbohydrate (CHO)', because the brewing process of beer converts the sugars to alcohol. That's why alcohol isn't included on the Glycaemic Index. However, of the total amount of calories in a can of beer, only about 1/3 of that is in the form of CHO.
Jblack, you are correct in saying that non-alcoholic beers are not necessarily lower in CHO. Removing the alcohol from beer doesn't lower it's CHO content, it does, however, lower the calorie content.

 

I found this at
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~3gleep6/rrsd/runsg.html

A 12 ounce bottle contains about 50-110 calories (depending on brand) derived from 8-18 grams of carbohydrates and a small amount of protein. The alcohol content is listed as below 0.5 percent by volume and analysis indicate that many brands contain substantially less. In short, these brews pack all the nutrition of beer, but lack the alcohol.

from
http://www.mckinley.uiuc.edu/Handouts/diabetes/alc-diab-u.html
Non Alcoholic beer 60 cal and 12 g carbo

Gatorade (12oz) 75 21
Miller light 96 3.2g
Amstell light 95 5
Sam Adams light 124 10
Bud 145 11

Non alcoholic beer also conatins other nutrients that may be beneficial. So maybe it not a bad idea to wash all that recovery pasta down with some NA beers.

 

Doesn't alcohol reduce the amount of Vit C in the body too? Not sure where I heard the info but always up my Vit C intake after a night of boozing....

 

Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin so there is constant loss from the body in urine. Due to this rapid turnover of vitamin C you always need to keep up a good intake. Remember that excessive intakes can be dangerous!

 

Alcohol reduces the bodies NADH/NAD+ enzymes which is needed to break down and re-synthasize lactate, therefore, by drinking before a race (up to 2 days) you are really shooting yourself in the foot because your body will not be as efficient at removing lactate which will lead to fatigue onset at a lower work rate (being fatigued quicker). It is worse to drink 2 days before a race rather than 1, atleast the next day your body has alot of sugar and CHO to burn..where as the day after that all the body has is depleted NADH/NAD+

There is however nothing better than finishing a race/comp, and chasing (especially a victory) it down with a cold brewski or twoski..lol

 

Just to clarify.

The brewing process itself is not responsible for alchohol content alone.
The introduction of yeast and the yeast, bacterii, consuming the sugars is what introduces alcohol. Alcohol, read bacterii **** - waste product- is a product of the yeast consuming the sugars.
In absence of yeast the brewing process produces malt beer - a kind of alcohol-less beer, a favorate with children in European and Latinstates.

 

The alcohol/NADH depletion info is helpful-thanks-i wonder how
alcohol might effect your energy reserves as it is the liver that stores glycogen & also metabolizes alcohol-does anyone have any info on how alcohol might affect the livers ability to store gylcogen?

 

I drink the best part of a bottle of wine a night and add a few shorts for good measure plus the occasional cigar. I am also 47 and last Saturday rode 85 miles the first 50 at 21mph. I often stop for a beer on a long ride and find that it gives me an extra boost. Jacques Anquetil was partial to champagne in the morning, I believe, whilst competing in the TdF

 

rather informative link:

www.middlebury.edu/offices/healthed/drugs/alcathletes.htm

 

Where did you find this information?

 

It's vit B complex you should take before or after drinking..

 

The artificial sweetners are not believed to be carcinogenic. Alchol is proven to be carcingenic.

 

>>>


This has no real bearing on cycling I don't think, but I can't tolerate alcohol. Even a small glass of wine makes me disoriented and woozy, and nothing do I hate more than feeling out of control. Its weird, because with my background (Italian and Jewish), I should be ablew to handle at least some alcohol (Italians often drink wine with every meal, and Jews use wine in most religious rituals.) But I just can't handle it and it doesnt taste good anyway for the most part, so I avoid it.

 

To HellonWhels, perhaps you are lacking the 2nd of two enzymes that break alcohol down. Alcohol is broken down first to acetaldehyde then to harmless by-products that are excreted in the urine. It is the acetaldehyde which gives you the more unpleasant feelings of alcohol (such as nausea) and if you lack the enzyme to break it down, then alcohol makes you feel rotten even after small amounts. Lacking that enzyme is more common amongst people from Asian races but does occur in others too.

 

I'm an exercise science and education student at university (4th year), i'm curious and love alcohol so it was inevitable that i found out what the side effects of drinking are: on a cellular level..

But i think any exercise physiology or biochemistry book will tell you about it...