Introduction
Drinking beer every night can have both positive and negative effects on your health. While moderate beer consumption can provide some health benefits, drinking too much can lead to serious health problems. In this article, we’ll discuss what happens when you drink beer every night, including the potential risks and benefits. We’ll also provide tips on how to drink responsibly and enjoy the occasional beer without putting your health at risk.
What Happens When You Drink Beer Every Night?
Drinking beer every night can have a number of negative effects on your health. While moderate drinking is generally considered safe, drinking too much can lead to a range of health problems, including liver damage, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of certain cancers.
Effects on Your Liver
Drinking beer every night can lead to fatty liver disease, which is caused by the accumulation of fat in the liver. This can lead to inflammation and scarring of the liver, which can eventually lead to cirrhosis, a serious and potentially life-threatening condition. Additionally, drinking beer every night can increase your risk of developing alcoholic hepatitis, a condition that can cause severe liver damage.
Effects on Your Heart
Drinking beer every night can also increase your risk of developing high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and stroke. Additionally, drinking beer every night can increase your risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that can increase your risk of stroke.
Effects on Your Cancer Risk
Drinking beer every night can also increase your risk of developing certain types of cancer, including breast, colorectal, and liver cancer. Additionally, drinking beer every night can increase your risk of developing pancreatic cancer, a particularly deadly form of cancer.
Tips for Reducing Your Risk
If you’re drinking beer every night, it’s important to take steps to reduce your risk of developing health problems. First, try to limit your drinking to no more than two drinks per day. Additionally, make sure to drink plenty of water and eat a healthy diet to help reduce your risk of developing health problems.
It’s no secret that we’re still not living in the most normal of times, and according to research by Nielsen, people consumed way more alcoholic beverages during the coronavirus pandemic than any other time. In other words, if drinking beer was your thing, it may have really been your thing to help you cope with stress and anxiety. And hey, everyone deals differently.
However, it’s important to know how a nightly beer (or two) can be affecting your body and overall health. We reached out to registered dietitians to ask them what happens with a daily diet of your favorite beer. And for more, don’t miss these Eating Habits to Lose Abdominal Fat As You Age, Say Dietitians.
The 2020-2025 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that if alcohol is consumed, it should be consumed in “moderation,” according to Elizabeth Huggins, RDN at Hilton Head Health.
“When it comes to drinking, people often have different ideas of moderation, so if you are talking about a 12-ounce beer, that is one or less a day for women and two or less a day for men,” says Huggins.
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“First, calories in beer can range from as low as 60 to as high as 240 calories per 12 ounces,” says Huggins. This, of course, can be an innocent habit at first. “But it can lead to weight gain, especially if your beer enjoys the company of snacks.”
In addition to being a highly caloric indulgence, another side effect of drinking beer every night is lethargy. “It may relax you so well that you don’t get off the couch to take that walk that you said you would take,” says Huggins. There’s no doubt that “resolve dissolves in alcohol!”
What’s more, regular beer drinking also “causes bloat and can irritate your digestive tract,” says nutritionist Katie Boyd, MS.
“Drinking beer can make your stomach produce more acid than usual, which can turn into inflammation of the gut lining. This can have long-term side effects like gastritis,” Boyd says. “They don’t call it a ‘beer belly’ for nothing.”
Alcohol is also known to negatively impact your natural sleep cycle.
“The more you drink and the closer to bedtime, the more likely you will experience diminished sleep quality,” says Huggins. How so? “Alcohol in beer causes gastric acid to be secreted and could increase your chances of suffering from heartburn or gastroesophageal reflux, which in addition to being unpleasant, can also negatively impact sleep,” she says.
While having a few beers may lead you to think you are sleeping well, it’s poor sleep quality, which is less restorative. “We can all agree that poor sleep interferes with mental functioning and our energy level the next day,” says Huggins.
Boyd agrees.
“Drinking too much beer can cause sleep disruption because it causes your insulin to spike in the middle of the night if drank later in the day, thus causing you to wake up. In the morning, you end up feeling groggy and not optimal for the rest of the day,” she explains.
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The only silver lining of having a beer every night?
“Beer is touted as more nutritious than most other alcoholic beverages due to the hops and barley that is used in the creation and fermentation process,” says Boyd. Beer is also relatively high in “vitamin B, antioxidants, and silicon that may strengthen and build stronger bones,” she says.
Plus, you may be helping to support a local craft brewer if you’re buying cases of their stuff.
But that certainly doesn’t offset all of the negatives of having a beer every night. And if you’re going to have one, you should chase it with some water. (Or, better yet, replace that can or bottle altogether with H2O.)
“One of the simplest things you can do to improve your body’s vitality, aside from keeping the body running smoothly, is getting your recommended intake of water,” says fitness trainer Corey Calliet. “It aids in the recovery, detoxification, and elimination processes within the body.”
Drinking water (not beer) consistently throughout the day can also curb cravings and keep you from eating excess calories.
So, there you have it. If drinking beer is your thing, it’s best to do it in moderation, not every night. While drinking beer every day may relax you during tough times, there are some significant downsides: weight gain, poor sleep, bad gastrointestinal inflammation, and other issues that will outlast your time spent in quarantine.
And for more, check out the 10 Worst Beers to Always Leave on Grocery Store Shelves.