By Registered dietitians: they are experts who can help you understand how to eat in a healthy way. They know a lot about different foods and how they affect your body. They can give you advice on what to eat to stay strong and feel good. Think of them as friendly guides for your eating habits!
How you relax after a day matters for your health. Some people relax by having a beer. It’s common to have a beer at the end of the day to unwind. But if you often have one or two beers each evening, it’s good to understand how it affects you. You might know that drinking too much beer isn’t healthy, but what about just one or two beers? Is that okay?
The way food and drinks affect people differs a lot because of their family history, health, and what they usually eat and do. But diet experts say that there are some basic effects that drinking a moderate amount of beer can have on health.
4 Effects of Drinking Beer Every Day on Your Body
It might make you feel sad or Makes you feel Down
Having a beer to relax might feel good in the moment, but according to registered dietitian Alex D’Elia, it can actually make you feel worse later on. Alcohol is known as a depressant and a sedative. So, while it might be nice and calming at the end of the day, when its effects wear off, it can actually worsen feelings of anxiety. This happens because of the way alcohol impacts the brain. D’Elia also mentions that it affects the levels of GABA and serotonin, which can result in more anxiety or sadness.
Yelena Wheeler, a registered dietitian at the National Coalition on Health, says that using beer to unwind might not be the best way to handle stress. This is because it can create a habit where you rely on beer whenever you’re stressed, which isn’t a good thing. Instead, it’s better to find healthier ways to deal with stress, like finding activities that help you feel better inside, instead of relying on something from the outside like beer.
It might make you stay awake during the night
Drinking beer might make you feel relaxed, but it could actually prevent you from sleeping well at night. D’Elia and Wheeler both agree that alcohol can affect the hormone melatonin, which helps control our sleep cycle. Even though alcohol can help you fall asleep quickly, it can disturb the important REM sleep and make your overall sleep quality worse. This might make it harder to wake up in the morning and leave you feeling tired and slow. D’Elia also points out that this is why beer can harm your mental health too – not getting enough sleep can really affect your mood and make you feel down.
It could harm your Stomach Or It Could Harm Your Gut
According to dietitian Johna Burdeos, having just one or two beers can mess up digestion for certain individuals. Scientifically, alcohol can bother the stomach and harm the helpful bacteria in your gut. This might lead to temporary tummy problems or heartburn. In the long run, it could even cause issues like stomach inflammation, like gastritis. And this can happen with even a moderate amount of drinking!
It could up your risk for certain health conditions
Although excessive drinking is widely known to harm health in various ways, the effects of moderate drinking are not entirely clear from the research. Some studies suggest that moderate drinking might not lead to weight gain and could even have some positive health effects. However, one thing that both scientific studies and experts agree on is that alcohol is always bad for the liver. This includes even having just one beer every night. Even moderate alcohol consumption raises the chances of developing a liver condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
It’s important to remember that having a few drinks occasionally is probably not going to lead to lots of health issues. However, the things we do regularly are important, including how we relax at the end of the day. If you usually have beer to unwind, it might be a good idea to try different ways that don’t involve alcohol. Some options to think about are taking a walk, gardening, doing yoga, dancing, having a nice bath, reading, solving crossword puzzles, or meditating.
At the start, it might be a bit hard to stop having your usual nighttime beer and do something different instead. Luckily, there are lots of tasty non-alcoholic beers that can help. Some good brands to look into are Athletic Brewing, Best Day Brewing, Ceria, and Rescue Club Brewing.
Changing your habit of having a beer at night to trying something else to unwind is good for your body and mind. It will also make the times when you do decide to have a beer feel even more special. That’s definitely something to celebrate.
Sources
Alex D’Elia is a registered dietitian nutritionist. Yelena Wheeler is a registered dietitian nutritionist and works at the National Coalition on Health. Johna Burdeos is an RD, which stands for registered dietitian.