Rum and Diet Coke - Nutrition

joanner08

Hi Guys, I thought that calories would come from fat, carbs or proteins. If this is so, why does rum and diet coke have zero of all three macros but 69 calories? Can someone please explain?

Thanks for your help in understanding this.

AnvilHead

Alcohol is a separate, but not often mentioned, macro. 7 calories per gram.

quiksylver296

AnvilHead wrote: »

Alcohol is a separate, but not often mentioned, macro. 7 calories per gram.

That^^

joanner08

Thank you guys.

hesn92

Huh.... interesting

whitey_71

Alcohol gets processed by the liver and will eventually become Acetate, which then gets converted and gets plugged into the citric acid cycle which produces ATP...our biochemical stored energy. Generally, everything gets converted into ATP for energy. (This is a very broad overhead on the process...back in my college days we had to be able to write the chemical reactions and know the map of the cycles). Calories are a measurement of energy. So as was stated above there are 7 calories per gram of alcohol.

Macros, macronutrients, are nutrients we need to for health. Alcohol is a poison, which is why the liver must process it. It is considered an empty calorie.

Alcohol also has some other collateral damage than just adding empty calories. When acetate is in the body and being processed the body will not utilize other nutrients. So no fat burning till it's processed and used. Also alcohol has been shown to lower testosterone levels which impairs fat metabolism and muscle growth. Further more when alcohol is present it lowers the break-down of protein and vitamins, it also impairs the absorption of amino acids.

However, a glass of wine, a beer, a normal mixed drink is not going to throw you off that much. You just need to account for the calories. However, consuming several drinks will have adverse effects. So if you do plan on drinking, to mitigate some of this eat about an hour before imbibing. On days i know i'm going to be drinking I stick to grilled seafood and veggies, save the calories for the booze. If you are binge drinking every night or every other night weight loss will be difficult.

Besides the actual biochemistry effects of alcohol there is always the mental effects. You know what goes great with beer...pizza...you know what goes great with pizza...another beer.

lorrpb

Alcohol has calories but no nutrition!