5 ms·

Drinking alcohol reduces the body's natural GLP-1 activity by 34%

51 points by comova 2y ago

comova 2y ago
"These findings provide compelling evidence that acute alcohol consumption decreases GLP-1, a satiation signal, elucidating alcohol's 'apéritif' effect." This could increase hunger and cravings (including for more alcohol).
- AtlasBarfed 2y ago
  The double whammy is that alcohol is an extremely calorically dense substance. Even worse, it is consumed in liquid form, which also bypasses some satiation mechanisms in the body. There's a reason tour de France riders get most of their replacement calories in liquid form
  - aaron695 2y ago
    [dead]
  - tredre3 2y ago
    Indeed the average base spirit has 2-3 calorie per millilitre. This is 5-6x the amount found in coca cola or pepsi. But then again, the quantities are also much less than when drinking soft drinks (hopefully).
    - dzhiurgis 2y ago
      IDK I can down a sixpack or two pretty easily. I can’t imagine drinking so much soda or even water.
      - tguvot 2y ago
        you can down a sixpack or two of stout or hoegaarden ?
        dzhiurgis 2y ago
        Not really. I prefer IPA. It’s a nice benefit you need less of those.
    - squidgedcricket 2y ago
      Glucose and ethanol are metabolized through different pathways that will have different efficiencies. How much impact does that have on comparing the two? Glucose can go right into the bloodstream (?), but ethanol needs to be reacted (taking energy) to turn into blood glucose. This is a confusion I have about calories-in-calories-out in general, fat/carbs/protein are all metabolized with different (and variable) efficiencies. Even pro-CICO folks agree not to count ingested calories that can't be metabolized, but that's just one spot on a gradient to draw a line.
      - positr0n 2y ago
        I know the efficiencies are variable among people and labels are not exact, but if you eat an amount of chicken breast labeled 100 calories, and an amount of butter labeled 100 calories, don't those numbers represent the amount of protein and fat respectively that the average person would absorb?
        Tarq0n 2y ago
        Almost. Protein takes a bit more energy to metabolize than fat. It gets even more complicated when food contains indigestible fiber.
        ErikBjare 2y ago
        I thought the energy needed to metabolize protein was included in the calorie estimation?
comova 2y ago
And if you haven't asked a friend who's on one, taking a GLP-1 medication reduces drinking by about 50%: https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/first-ever-randomized-trial-of-ozempic https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/first-ever-randomized-tria...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- someonehere 2y ago
  Can confirm I can’t drink as much anymore and have switched to Lite beers because I don’t feel weird after drinking.
- DrillShopper 2y ago
  Holy crap, that explains why my cravings for alcohol have gone down significantly since I started Mounjaro.
pedalpete 2y ago
I was expecting to see this study as related to GLP-1 activity post a night of drinking, and therefore we'd understand the mechanism, as decreased sleep delays GLP-1 activity by 90 minutes (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697408/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697408/) I'd be keen to understand the pathway by which alcohol intake directly reduces GLP-1 activity.
tiffanyh 2y ago
Which is interesting because there’s a lot of Mediterranean cultures that drink after every meal (lunch & dinner). And the reason is “for digestion”. So this would suggest the opposite effect is happening. Drinking actually hurts digestion.
- debugnik 2y ago
  > And the reason is “for digestion”. This is an excuse a few use to justify drinking wine when they know it's "otherwise" unhealthy, but most people here who drink do so simply because they like it.
  - mewpmewp2 2y ago
    I like drinking, but of course this means I also like coming up with weird excuses for why to drink.
- ipaddr 2y ago
  Fermenting grapes is different than any alcohol.
  - tiffanyh 2y ago
    I wasn’t thinking wine. More like Ouzo in Greece. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouzo#:~:text=Ouzo%2520(Greek%253A%2520%CE%BF%CF%8D%CE%B6%CE%BF%252C%2520IPA,process%2520of%2520distillation%2520and%2520flavoring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouzo#:~:text=Ouzo%2520(Greek%2....
  - resoluteteeth 2y ago
    Is it? There has been a lot of research on stuff like antioxidants in wine but as far as I can tell that's largely because of older observational health studies on purporting to show a positive effect from moderate wine consumption which has disappeared in more recent studies that did a better job controlling for confounding factors (like many people who don't drink at all being former alcoholics or having other health issues) which have shown that any alcohol consumption is harmful.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

51 points by comova 2y ago

"These findings provide compelling evidence that acute alcohol consumption decreases GLP-1, a satiation signal, elucidating alcohol's 'apéritif' effect." This could increase hunger and cravings (including for more alcohol).

AtlasBarfed 2y ago
The double whammy is that alcohol is an extremely calorically dense substance. Even worse, it is consumed in liquid form, which also bypasses some satiation mechanisms in the body. There's a reason tour de France riders get most of their replacement calories in liquid form
- aaron695 2y ago
  [dead]
- tredre3 2y ago
  Indeed the average base spirit has 2-3 calorie per millilitre. This is 5-6x the amount found in coca cola or pepsi. But then again, the quantities are also much less than when drinking soft drinks (hopefully).
  - dzhiurgis 2y ago
    IDK I can down a sixpack or two pretty easily. I can’t imagine drinking so much soda or even water.
    - tguvot 2y ago
      you can down a sixpack or two of stout or hoegaarden ?
      - dzhiurgis 2y ago
        Not really. I prefer IPA. It’s a nice benefit you need less of those.
  - squidgedcricket 2y ago
    Glucose and ethanol are metabolized through different pathways that will have different efficiencies. How much impact does that have on comparing the two? Glucose can go right into the bloodstream (?), but ethanol needs to be reacted (taking energy) to turn into blood glucose. This is a confusion I have about calories-in-calories-out in general, fat/carbs/protein are all metabolized with different (and variable) efficiencies. Even pro-CICO folks agree not to count ingested calories that can't be metabolized, but that's just one spot on a gradient to draw a line.
    - positr0n 2y ago
      I know the efficiencies are variable among people and labels are not exact, but if you eat an amount of chicken breast labeled 100 calories, and an amount of butter labeled 100 calories, don't those numbers represent the amount of protein and fat respectively that the average person would absorb?
      - Tarq0n 2y ago
        Almost. Protein takes a bit more energy to metabolize than fat. It gets even more complicated when food contains indigestible fiber.
        ErikBjare 2y ago
        I thought the energy needed to metabolize protein was included in the calorie estimation?

comova 2y ago

And if you haven't asked a friend who's on one, taking a GLP-1 medication reduces drinking by about 50%: https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/first-ever-randomized-trial-of-ozempic https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/first-ever-randomized-tria...

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
someonehere 2y ago
Can confirm I can’t drink as much anymore and have switched to Lite beers because I don’t feel weird after drinking.
DrillShopper 2y ago
Holy crap, that explains why my cravings for alcohol have gone down significantly since I started Mounjaro.

pedalpete 2y ago

I was expecting to see this study as related to GLP-1 activity post a night of drinking, and therefore we'd understand the mechanism, as decreased sleep delays GLP-1 activity by 90 minutes (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697408/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3697408/) I'd be keen to understand the pathway by which alcohol intake directly reduces GLP-1 activity.

tiffanyh 2y ago

Which is interesting because there’s a lot of Mediterranean cultures that drink after every meal (lunch & dinner). And the reason is “for digestion”. So this would suggest the opposite effect is happening. Drinking actually hurts digestion.

debugnik 2y ago
> And the reason is “for digestion”. This is an excuse a few use to justify drinking wine when they know it's "otherwise" unhealthy, but most people here who drink do so simply because they like it.
- mewpmewp2 2y ago
  I like drinking, but of course this means I also like coming up with weird excuses for why to drink.
ipaddr 2y ago
Fermenting grapes is different than any alcohol.
- tiffanyh 2y ago
  I wasn’t thinking wine. More like Ouzo in Greece. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouzo#:~:text=Ouzo%2520(Greek%253A%2520%CE%BF%CF%8D%CE%B6%CE%BF%252C%2520IPA,process%2520of%2520distillation%2520and%2520flavoring https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouzo#:~:text=Ouzo%2520(Greek%2....
- resoluteteeth 2y ago
  Is it? There has been a lot of research on stuff like antioxidants in wine but as far as I can tell that's largely because of older observational health studies on purporting to show a positive effect from moderate wine consumption which has disappeared in more recent studies that did a better job controlling for confounding factors (like many people who don't drink at all being former alcoholics or having other health issues) which have shown that any alcohol consumption is harmful.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]