Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet Jennifer Wood San Francisco State University

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet Eat, drink, and be merry! A common saying during the festive holiday season, a time where social gatherings often occur based around food and beverages. In general, people who have been good all year long tend to over-indulge at holiday parties between Thanksgiving and New Year on snacks, grand feasts, and without a doubt, alcohol. Participants using healthy living practices or diet programs may be inclined to indulge without realizing the negative impact that alcohol can have on their health. Beyond the common and unpleasant side effects of over-doing it, alcohol also contains calories that quickly add up during weeks of social gatherings. To ensure dieters are aware of the calorie content in their drinks, it is important to provide an educational demonstration of the nutrition of alcohol, serving sizes and tips on monitoring intake to stay healthy during the holidays. For professionals in the nutrition field, this teaching module can provide a base of knowledge to educate clients on how alcohol affects their diet plans helping them maintain their weight-loss goals through the festive holiday season. Based on a 2010 Gallup Poll, over 60% of adults aged 25-45 drink alcoholic beverages on a regular basis. At the same time, about 50% of Americans claim they are on a diet, alongside a rising obesity epidemic including two thirds of the population (Sayon-Orea, MartinezGonzalez, & Bes-Rastrolla, 2011). Though most diets cover food items extensively, there is still confusion about the nutrition content of alcohol; even when polling a class of dietetics students, only about half of the students knew the calorie contents and serving sizes of typical drinks. When people fail to contribute calories from alcohol in their daily intake, they may end up struggling with meeting weight loss goals. It may be helpful to understand that adding one glass of wine to daily intake each night can result in a 10 pound weight gain over a year. Drinking alcohol at social events during the holiday season one can see an abundance of extra calories without even realizing it. On average, at a party in the first hour most guests will consume two 2

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet drinks, and about one drink per hour after that. Even just three drinks in a night can add 3001,500 additional calories. Overconsumption of alcohol is harmful to the diet in other ways as well as it reduces inhibitions causing drinkers to over consume foods, in addition to reducing the bodys ability to process fats resulting in an increase of lipids throughout the body (Mezey, 2011). One gram of pure alcohol contains about 7 calories, comparing this to other macronutrients, carbohydrates and proteins each have 4 calories per gram, and fats have 9 calories per gram (Sayon-Orea et al., 2011). Unlike carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, alcohol does not provide other nutrients to the body. Because most alcoholic beverages do not have nutrition facts labels, calorie content is often overlooked. One 12-ounce bottle of beer that is 5% alcohol is considered a serving and equals 130 calories; a 5-ounce glass of wine that is around 12% contains 120 calories; and a 1.5 ounce shot of 40% alcohol liquor is 96 calories (French, Norton, Fang, & Maclean, 2010). Knowing these basic calorie contents and serving sizes of alcohol can help a dieter begin to keep track of excess calories from their drink. Recognizing the basic calories and serving sizes of common alcoholic beverages provides a useful start for monitoring alcohol consumption in the daily intake. From here, portion control and being able to set limits may help someone who is trying to lose weight. Difference in serving sizes, alcohol content, and addition of mixers all affect the overall calorie content of an alcoholic drink and need to be accounted for. For example, when beer is served in a pint glass, one is actually getting a serving plus one-third, so three pints would equal four servings. In addition to this, many restaurants serve wine by 8 ounce pours, and this makes two glasses of wine equal to three servings. Any stiff drink (i.e. a drink made with all liquor) can have up to three shots in it, making the classic cocktails like a martini or Manhattan in the realm of three servings for one 3

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet drink. Further, with a rise in popularity of microbreweries, the alcohol content of beer has steadily increased. A beer with 10% alcohol content will have around twice as many calories as a standard 5% beer. This should surely be taken into account when being aware of calories in a drink. Understanding these guidelines and making it a habit to count portions by the serving will better help dieters keep track of their calorie intake. Alcohol consumption affects body mass beyond just an addition of calories. Alcohol is processed by the body through the liver. The liver plays many important roles in our bodies, one of which is fat metabolism. However, when alcohol is being processed, the liver is not breaking down fats. If an excessive amount of alcoholic beverages are drunk within a short timeframe, detoxification of alcohol is prioritized, releasing fats into the bloodstream and contributing to an increase in adipose tissue (French et al., 2010). Also, an increase in alcohol consumption can be joined with an increase in hunger, and reduced ability to make smart food choices. Mezey (2011) refers to this as the triple whammy including the reduction in fat burning of our body, increased hunger and decreased ability to avoid overeating. Because a group of dieters is presumed to have little knowledge about this nutrition of alcohol, using a cognitive learning model would be beneficial to educate groups. In this case, cognitive learning occurs when the participants gain knowledge through education about the importance of diet in connection to alcohol consumption by watching the presentation (Bauer, Liou, & Sokolik, 2012). After teaching the basics of alcohol nutrition, it is important to help the audience members understand why this information is important and relevant to them. This type of affective learning will connect the audience to why drinking less and monitoring how much they drink is important to stay consistent with their diet goals. When the audience understands the impact that alcohol has on their health from a nutrition standpoint, it will become clearer to 4

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet them why they should monitor and be aware of intake. As the participants learn the facts and understand why being aware of alcohol intake is important, they will be able to apply the suggestions for reducing consumption throughout the night. Transmission is a teaching philosophy that focuses on conveying information to the group as a whole; it focuses primarily on educating participants about information which they may have not previously known (Pratt & Collins, 2006). This teaching philosophy works best for a group of dieters as the presentation is short and many audience members do not know the information being given to them. Transmission can be a very effective tool when used in a way that excites, intrigues and otherwise catches interest of the audience members. Many people enjoy alcohol socially, and are interested in learning more about its unique nutritional properties. The overall goal for this lesson plan is to get students to understand the importance of counting calories that come from alcohol in their daily intake. There were three main objectives in my presentation in relation to getting the participants to understand how alcohol affects their diet. The first objective is that after the teaching module, participants will be able to estimate calories consumed based on the alcoholic drink they chose. The second objective is that participants will be able to monitor the servings of alcohol consumed in an evening based on the serving sizes given in the module. Finally, the participants will understand the importance of drinking water between drinks to avoid dehydration and will follow this goal. Measuring the success of this presentation will occur through feedback from audience members after the Thanksgiving holiday to gauge if new knowledge or habits were used. To properly present this information, the set-up will be simple and inexpensiveespecially if the educator has all of the necessary supplies in their home. Required will be a 12

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet ounce beer bottle or can, a pint glass, a wine glass, 5 ounces of wine, a wine bottle, a 1.5 ounce shot glass and a bottle of 80-proof liquor. In addition to the visuals, the audience will be given a handout with the main points about the presentation written, and some other useful information to consider when drinking alcohol. The handout will be supplementation to reinforce what is being stated during the presentation. The general content of this presentation is very basic and the subject matter could easily be conveyed by anyone. The presenter begins by introducing themself and the subject matter; including the reason the subject of alcohol is the topic at hand. The first main learning segment is talking about the basics of alcohol nutrition. It is here that the presenter will talk about the various calories in alcohol including serving sizes. For presentations that have more time allowed, it would be a great activity to choose some audience members to pour wine or liquor to guess what a serving size is. Beer servings should be differentiated between 12 ounce bottle and a pint glass. After basic nutrition of alcohol is completed, the next step of the presentation focuses on how the participants can monitor and limit the calories they intake from alcohol during a night out. The teacher walks the group through the various suggestions on monitoring beer, wine, and liquor. First with beer, letting the audience know how easy and convenient a bottle or can is for monitoring serving size. However, because restaurants serve in pint glasses, noting how three pint glasses equals four bottles (servings) of beer. Further, a variety of beers have differing alcohol contents and this will affect the overall calories especially if it is a high alcohol content beer. What may be helpful for people to understand as a baseline is using every 2.5% alcohol in a beer equals about 65 calories, so a normal 5% beer is about 130 calories, and a very strong 10% beer is 260 calories (all per 12 ounce serving). 6

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet Next the teacher will talk about wine servings. With wine it is most important to monitor a 5 ounce pour. Note to the class that this is a generous serving by showing them in a wine glass. With wine at a party, the best way to monitor intake is to have one glass at a time and not refill until the glass is completely empty. This will allow the participant to accurately count the number of glasses theyve had throughout the evening. Finally the teacher will talk about liquor, which can have the most variation of the three categories. Liquor on its own has about 100 calories per 1.5 ounce serving. However, many drinks will have a mixer that can contribute calories and some drinks contain up to 4 shots which turns into 400 calories very quickly. Very high calorie drinks to warn the audience about include Long Island Iced Tea, with 4 shots of liquor in addition to lemon syrup and cola can contribute 550 calories to the diet; and margaritas with 2 shots of liquor and sweetened lime juice almost 500 calories. The best advice the teacher can give to the audience is to limit their drinks to one shot and a non-calorie mixer such as soda water or diet sodas. The final part of the presentation is going over the importance of water consumption while drinking. Drinking water helps give the liver time to process the alcohol. This is beneficial to the dieter because the liver will be able to balance the amounts of triglycerides processed. When too much alcohol is consumed at one time, the triglyceride processing gets put on hold, and there are more fats going throughout the body. The speaker should stress the importance of drinking water for overall health and well-being. To end the presentation, the educator summarizes the various items covered in the teaching module, which are calories and serving sizes of alcoholic beverages, ways to reduce the

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet amount of calories consumed in alcoholic beverages, and the importance of drinking water between drinks. As alcohol is consumed during the holiday season, persons who are trying to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle and meet weight loss goals will have learned the skills from the presentation to confidently go to social gatherings able to gauge the total calories consumed through their drink. This understanding will be beneficial not only for the holiday season, but for any social gathering meeting around food and drink. This presentation provides relevant and easy-to-understand information that can aid in overall health and facilitate a smart drinking strategy throughout the season.

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet References Bauer, K.D., Liou, D., Sokolik, C.A. (2012). Nutrition counseling and education skill development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage. French, M.T., Norton, E.C., Fang, H., & Maclean, J.C. (2010). Alcohol consumption and body weight. Health Economics, 19, 814-832. How to Buy Alcohol for Your Party. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2013 from WikiHow: http://www.wikihow.com/Buy-Alcohol-for-Your-Party Mezey, A. (2011). How to keep from overindulging during the holidays. Retrieved from: https://portal.lifeworks.com/materials/HPSActiveAssociatedFiles/7191.pdf Newport, F. (July 30, 2010). U.S. Drinking Rate Edges Up Slightly to 25-Year High. Gallup Well-Being. Gallup. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/141656/drinking-rate-edges-slightly-year-high.aspx Pratt, D., Collins, J. (2006). Five perspectives on teaching. International PBL Symposium 2007. University of British Columbia. Sayon-Orea, C., Martinez-Gonzalez, M.A., & Bes-Rastrolla, M. (2011). Alcohol consumption and body weight: a systematic review. Nutrition Reviews, 69(8), 419-431.

Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet Appendices: A. YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgn2PRRro7c&list=PLEGueCKLZmr06Upop_q_ibu1Rbpd D4M-X&index=10 B. Self-Evaluation of Oral Presentations 1. What was the topic or title of your presentation? Cheers to Your Health focuses on drinking smart to stay in line with weight loss goals through the holiday season. 2. Describe one thing that you did well in this presentation. I felt like the simplicity of my presentation could easily be used by anyone. I had hoped to create a presentation that was very basic, as my research showed that many people were not aware of the nutrition of alcohol. Because of my very simple and specific content, I found that the audience was able to easily understand the content and possibly were motivated to apply some of the suggestions in their life.

3. Describe one thing that you would change about your preparation of this presentation. When I had practiced my presentation with a lot of improvisation and more audience interaction, my time ran way over. I decided to stick to more of a transmission approach to educating, and found that I could have had three extra minutes of time. I really would have liked to use some more of my fun, interactive ideas to give this presentation some more pizzazz. Also, it would have been great if I did not shatter a glass right before my presentation!

4. Comment on the content of your presentation: do you feel that you provided your audience with information that they did not know prior to your presentation? Explain.

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Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet I was surprised at how many people commented on the helpfulness of this presentation. I found that most students were unaware of basic calories and serving sizes, and appreciated the content of my presentation. I was pleased that I was able to give people knowledge on the subject.

5. Comment on your eye contact: was it sufficient? Why or why not? If not, how do you plan to improve your eye contact for your next presentation? I honestly think I did very well on my eye contact for this presentation. I feel very confident in front of groups, and like to make a brief connection with everyone to keep my motivation. I did feel like maybe I had rushed my presentation a bit, and perhaps taking some brief pauses with eye contact would help out. Also, an increase in audience interaction would have further created a connection with the group and included more eye contact.

6. Comment on your gestures and movement: were they effective? Why or why not? If not, how do you plan to improve your gestures and movement for your next presentation? Overall I felt that I kept my gestures and movement to a minimum, mostly picking up the different bottles or glassware to show the audience serving sizes. I didnt think I was doing anything too distracting, and I moved around just enough to stay interesting.

7. Comment on your practice for this presentation: did you practice thoroughly? If you feel that you did not practice thoroughly, how will you modify your practice for your next presentation? Be specific. I practiced a lot for this presentation! At first I was scripted, but once I had a general idea of the specifics I wanted to include, I gave up the script. This made each time presenting a little bit different, and I realized that I could have benefited from just a guide such as a power point so I could ensure I covered all of my ideas. Further, each time I practiced my time was over 10 minutes, and I was surprised that on the in-class presentation I took only 7 minutes. While

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Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet looking back at my video, I didnt sound too rushed, I still wish I could have slowed down and included more audience participation.

8. Please provide an overall assessment of your presentation. Were you satisfied with your presentation? Why or why not? I felt pleased with my presentation. I was a little bit panicked the night before, thinking that maybe my content was way too simple, but quickly realized that people appreciated my content after my in-class presentation. I was a little bit thrown off when I broke the pint glass before I started, but tried to move-on and still do a good job. When I finished, I felt like I had really rushed, but covered everything; I was happy to hear positive feedback from my peers, and watch my YouTube video and see that I really did a good job despite the simplicity. In the future, with more time allowed on the topic, I would really have enjoyed some more audience participation. For example, I had hoped to bring someone up to do a pour of wine thinking this would be a fun way to see how well people knew what a serving size was. I also intended to use an icebreaker that questioned the audience on their beliefs about alcohol. For example, some people believe beer before liquor, never been sicker. There are many old wives tales about alcohol that are funny and interesting. When students share their experiences and thoughts, then learn facts, they have a different perspective and interest in the subject.

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Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet

C. Lesson Plan Outline Cheers to Your Health this Holiday Season! Duration: 10 minutes Target Group: Adults involved in a weight loss program Overall Goal: Adults will have knowledge that alcoholic beverages contain calories which contribute to their overall dietary intake. Major Concepts: Serving sizes and calories of liquor, wine, and beer Beer- 12ounces-5%-120kcal Wine- 5ounces-12%-125kcal Liquor- 1.5ounces-40%-100kcal How to decrease the calories of your alcoholic beverage Limit portion to the serving size, limit servings Low-or no-calorie mixers Drink water Low calorie items are not to be excessively consumed Wine glass refilling Identify dangerous drinks Long island iced tea Margarita White Russian Icebreaker or Attention Grabber: Common alcohol beliefs What have you heard about alcohol? Holidays are a time where people over-indulge Objectives and learning domains; generalizations and learning experiences 1. Serving sizes and calories Domain: Cognitive- knowledge Generalization: Most servings of alcoholic beverages contain between 100 and 130 calories.
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Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet

Learning Experience: Visual display of various alcoholic beverages and their calories Bottle of beer and pint glass Bottles of red and white wine and wine glass Bottles of dark and clear liquor and shot glass 2. Simple substitutions Domain: Affective- valuing Generalization: Using lower calorie mixers can decrease the total amount of calories in your beverage Learning experience: Show how to build an alcoholic drink with liquor, soda, splash juice, and citrus fruit. 3. Drink Water Domain: Psychomotor- action Generalization: Drinking water between alcoholic beverages slows the rate of alcohols absorption into the body causing less stress to other bodily functions. Learning Experience: Inform the audience that for every serving of alcohol they should have one glass of water. Teaching Aids and Materials: Beer bottle Pint glass Red wine bottle Wine glass Liquor bottles (one dark, one clear) Shot glass Placards with written info Supplemental handout

Summary: Alcohol is consumed in excessive during the holiday season because of an abundance of social gatherings. Dieters may not include alcohol consumption into their daily calorie count, even though they may contribute heavily to end caloric intake. This can hinder weight loss goals.
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Cheers to Your Health: Alcohol Consumption and Diet

Evaluation: At the end of the presentation, questions will be asked to audience to ensure they know that basic principles of alcohol nutrition. A control group may be used after the Thanksgiving holiday to interpret if audience was able to use three suggestions provided in the talk. Assignment: Audience is requested to factor in calories from alcohol into their daily intake.

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