Posted on January 08, 2015 by Kate Halsall
It’s cold turkey time again – and just not in terms of Christmas leftovers! Whether it’s the New Year Detox, the much needed break for your liver after Christmas excess, a chance to raise money for charity or the ‘New Year, New You’, Dry January is here again. But other than saving you some money, maybe helping you to get more sleep and stopping those weekend hangovers, are there really any real benefits to dry January?
Here’s the thing….we all know that eating or drinking too much of one thing is not good for you. But what does abstaining for one month actually achieve? Will it make you realise how much you don’t actually need alcohol so you cut down your units (or even totally give up) for life? Or does it mean that you look forward to the 1st Feb and that much needed beverage – and then would you just stop at one drink or would you binge? And in terms of health benefits – other than reducing our calorie intake, are there any actual health benefits to stopping drinking for one month?
As Personal Trainers, of course we’re going to say yes. But you don’t just need to take our word for it, research by the New Scientist last year say ‘yes’ yes there are health benefits for stopping drinking for one month. The New Scientist team had the following results from giving up alcohol for one month:
– reduced their liver fat by 15%
Our liver is plays a massive role in some of our key bodily functions. It filters chemicals like alcohol from the blood; regulates hormones and blood sugar levels; stores energy from the nutrients and so on. Fat accumulation in the liver can lead towards liver disease so it’s reduction is key in keeping it healthy!
– blood glucose reduced by 16%
We know that we need to control our blood sugar in order to control insulin production.
– loss of weight
Both linked to the reduction in blood sugar and the reduction in calories consumed. On average, they lost 1.5kg
– reduction in blood cholesterol
Thus reducing one of the risk factors of heart disease
If this is achieved through one month – imagine what you could achieve if you did this for longer? And imagine the results you could achieve even more with some hard work in the gym or personal training sessions and clean eating!
Not convinced? Well there’s a research group looking for people to register to go dry and the health benefits accurately measured:
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07eab5vb34fc966864&llr=jf9hjwhab
Further Reading:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129502.600-our-liver-vacation-is-a-dry-january-really-worth-it.html#.VK6SDJWzXIU
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dry-january-pros-cons-not-drinking-alcohol-month-1481227
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25576006