A ketogenic diet is beneficial to the body in different ways. It is based on low carb foods, with an intake of less than 50 grams of starch daily. Being on a carb-restricted diet, it is common to hear people asking, “Can alcoholic drinks be keto-friendly?” Alcoholic drinks contain a lot of carbs, but if you take a glass of wine while on a keto diet, you are good to go. This is according to keto diet experts. Keto helps people live healthier lives and lose weight and even manage some diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
But, you must adhere to strict allotment of carbohydrates and sugar and also let your doctor know if you are under any treatment. Even though a little alcohol is not bad for you, you should enjoy it in moderation. When taken in large amounts, alcohol leads to ketonuria, which means too many ketones in the body. While alcohol is not an immediate cause of ketonuria, it leads to delayed intermediary metabolism due to glycogen depletion caused by alcohol consumption.
When you take alcohol combined with a fat-rich diet, metabolism in your liver changes, initially, it can lead to increased ketone activity, but later the liver starts using alcohol as an energy source instead of the fat stored in your body.
How Fat Burning Is Affected by Alcohol
Most people are extra careful not to take any sweetened drinks or carb-rich drinks because any of these automatically brings them out of ketosis. However, they still play around with alcoholic beverages, including dry wine and straight liquor. These drinks contain little sugar and are low in calories. What matters is their content; it’s the digestion process. Once the alcohol enters the bloodstream, the creation of ketones is slowed as the body takes time to process the alcohol.
Those who take spirits once occasionally, you will not have a problem with a keto diet. However, if you start drinking more and especially in between the week, the process of burning the fat will slow down and eventually, you see progress.
Keto Drinkers Become Drunk Fast
Carbs are suitable for people who want to enjoy alcohol in large amounts. They help to lower alcohol levels in the blood and make you less drunk. However, while on a ketogenic lifestyle, your body stores no glycogen, or has too little. This leads to the quick processing of the alcoholic drink. It is not a good feeling as it can lead to a break down due to quick drunkenness and other unpleasant issues.
Willpower is Everything
You must have the willpower to control yourself. Drinking inhibits your progress; it increases your chances of going for carb-rich snacks such as pizza instead of eating a handful of olives or nuts.
If you can limit your intake of alcohol or choose the liquor carefully, it goes a long way to help you make better choices on what to eat. So, before you go for another drink, know your chances of remaining in ketosis are diminishing. You should not blow your hard work over a few drinks.
Your willpower to check on how much alcohol you consume ensures you can still go out with your friends for some fun. A ketogenic diet should not limit you. Here are some of the alcoholic drinks, which are keto-friendly when taken in moderation.
Hard Liquor
Hard liquors include gin, scotch, vodka, tequila, rum, and brandy. They have about 40% alcohol, zero sugars, and carbs and are, therefore, an ideal choice for a keto diet. However, if you mix any of these drinks with something to make them tastier like a soda, they become metabolized instead of stored fats.
The best option is mixing the spirits with seltzer or pure water. However, the standard option is tonic water, which is a type of soda derived from quinine; tonic water has 12 pounds of carbs and around 33 grams of sugar. What’s more, you should not ask the bar attendant to mix your hard liquor with the bars’ mixers or fruit juice as they are extremely rich in carbs.
It is common to crave for a richer taste that what tequila has to offer. Look for a strawberry margarita and white Russian; they are allowed on the keto diet. Any flavoured alcohol is a no; the coconut flavoured vodka may be tempting but has too much sugar, and you must avoid as much as possible.
Wine
Most of the cheap ones that cost below $10 have some residual sugar. However, you can choose to have dry wine, just a single glass after dinner. These dry wines have very little sugar. Besides, note that not every dry wine is perfect for you when on a keto lifestyle. Most of the wines have more than 75 additives, which are not included in the label. They contain artificial coloring, metals, ammonia and defoaming agents and many others. You need to know that these wines also have carcinogenic mycotoxins caused by poor fermentation or poor moldy vats.
Keto-friendly dry white and red wines include:
- Sauvignon blanc, which has 0.6g carbs per ounce.
- Italian pinot grigio, which has 0.6g carbs per ounce.
- Pinot blanc, which has 0.57g carbs per ounce.
- Cabernet sauvignon, which has 0.75g carbs per ounce.
- Merlot, which has 0.74g carbs per ounce.
- Pinot noir, which has 0.68g carbs per ounce
BEER
Beer consists of various ingredients, including hops, water, and barley. When on a strict diet, drinking beer puts you out of ketosis. It is made of barley mixed with yeast and leads to carb-rich drink, higher than what you find in straight liquor. Beer has gluten, ochratoxin A, mold toxins, and yeast. If you choose to drink beer, your body will no longer be on ketosis.
The Bottom Line
Even with so many keto-friendly alcoholic drinks, moderation is still important. You should know that despite being referred to as low-carb, they still have empty calories. Do not overindulge in booze. It will suppress fat-burning and affect your weight loss progress. But there are so many other benefits you can get from the ketogenic diet. Visit Simpleketo test for a perfect keto fruit list, and you can benefit even more. In our next blog, we will discuss the health benefits you can gain from this diet plan.