Labels carrying
calorie information on beer, wine and spirits are causing an increased number
of people to swap food for alcohol, prompting concern among
health experts. Dubbed by doctors as “drunkorexia”, an
increased number of people are swapping their food calories for alcoholic
drinks which contain little or no nutritional value, according to The Times. Worrying also is that people therefore will
tend to drink on an empty stomach, making the effects of alcohol more acute.
Adrienne Key, consultant psychiatrist and
lead clinician for eating disorders at the Priory Hospital, Roehampton, said that
calorie information on drinks products was harmful for those with eating
problems. She said, “Recently the advertising of the
number of calories in a glass of wine and other drinks, designed to help the
population as a whole control their intake, has led to a minority adapting
their diets to cut out food to allow for a drink. When someone already has
a low weight, it quickly becomes an issue.”
There are always side effects from everything, but drunkorexia is an interesting point that makes me wonder. I wonder how much people will really be tempted to trade booze for food in reality? I hear that this is a popular concept among college age people, but there are several other youth concepts that most of them grow out of. Surely there is some validity to this idea, but " Aren't beer calories the same as food calories"? ;o)
