You probably have read that alcohol is basically empty calories. You also may have heard that drinking a glass of red wine every day is good for you.

When it comes to alcohol there are many facts and myths. A good alcohol awareness class can explain them in more detail, but we’ll give you some of the basic facts in this article. Alcohol is called “empty calories” for a very good reason. On average alcohol is mostly sugar and carbs. That means no protein, no vitamins and no micro-nutrients. One drink has been shown to reduce blood sugar in Type-2 diabetics; however, alcohol is lethal if more is consumed.

Alcoholic beverages only have marginal nutritional value when combined with other foods or drinks. Fruit and juices are examples. But usually when alcohol is mixed with juices which may improve the nutrition, there is often much additional sugar added.

What About Red Wine?

Some studies have shown that a glass of red wine every day is good for your heart and reduces the chance of heart disease. There are many studies that show that there is no added value to your heart from red wine.

Red wine may be the most nutritional alcohol beverage. Would you care to guess what nutritional value a glass brings to your daily requirements for vitamins and minerals?

From a glass of red table wine you get about 1% of your daily requirements for riboflavin, vitamin B6, iron, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. You get 2% of the required daily intake for manganese. That is it!

Not only are alcoholic beverages empty calories, booze also has the ability to inhibit the absorption of vitamins and other minerals. So if you are looking to boost your health this year it is a good idea to lay off the booze. If you want to learn, more consider taking a 12 hour alcohol awareness class.

Did you know that alcohol is a drug? For the purposes of this discussion we will definitely a drug as a substance that has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body.

Under this definition it would be impossible not to classify alcohol as a drug. Have you ever consumed alcohol? If so, you know it affects the way you think, act and react!

Just because it is legal to buy, sell and consume alcohol (if you are over 21 and hold the proper permits) does not mean it is not a drug and cannot be dangerous. As a counselor for both in class and online alcohol classes I can assure you that if you had not considered alcohol a drug before, you might want to consider educating yourself with an alcohol drug class on the nature of the alcoholic beverage you are consuming.

Did you know that all forms of alcohol are poisonous to the human body? For those of you drinkers who did not know this – beware. It is only due to the extraordinary effort of our liver that it is able to convert ethyl alcohol into a non-toxic substance. If you drink too much and your liver becomes saturated, some of the toxic alcohol makes its way into your bloodstream. The result of this is alcohol poisoning.

Remember alcohol is both a drug and a poison. Use it moderately or not at all.