• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Eat Stop Eat | Intermittent fasting | Weight Loss | The pursuit of happiness

  • Home
  • Meet Brad
  • Topics
    • Muscle Building
    • Weight Loss
    • Healthy Ramblings
    • Exclusive Content
  • Intro to Intermittent Fasting

The Fourth Macronutrient

May 21, 2008 By Brad Pilon

It’s Wednesday and I’m already looking forward to the weekend.

I have spent almost all of my morning answering e-mail questions that did nothing but reaffirm my belief that obsessive compulsive eating is continuing to dig its claws into the North American “healthy lifestyle” (the opposite of what I suggest in Eat Stop Eat).

I received two different emails about two very famous fitness personalities. One was promoting drinking ice-water to lose weight, and the other was spreading the “if you don’t eat every couple hours you will cause your body to burn lean muscle” misinformation.

Ugh.

As if these emails weren’t depressing enough, I then switched to answering questions like “Will switching from normal tea to green tea help me lose weight for the summer?” [no] and “Can I drink Fruit Smoothies while I am fasting if they are made from organic fruit?” [no again].

Honestly, it’s 9 AM and I feel like I need a drink.

So, it’s time to talk booze.

I like alcohol. (And yes, it actually is the fourth macronutrient- Protein, Carbohydrates, Fats and Alchohol)

I like the fourth macronutrient because unlike it’s three siblings very few people choose their drink based on it’s perceived health value. For the most part, alcohol has not been influenced by obsessive compulsive eating.

People like what they like because of taste, branding, the ‘image’ it portrays, or some combination of the three (except for those people who drink red wine for the antioxidants).

I drink scotch for the taste. It has nothing to do with a media push about how scotch can cure diabetes, or improve my anti-oxidant status. Just pure, simple taste.

Sometimes I feel like drinking a smoky glass of Laphroig, other days it is the Balvenie that catches me. I can assure you, I have never once thought “I should have a glass of scotch today to improve my health”.

It is an occasional treat, and like all treats, I do it for the taste.

Balvenie+Single+Barrel+15 2
When it comes to beer I’m very picky. I like Guinness, Caffreys and Innis and Gunn (I highly recommend you try Innis and Gunn, especially if you like scotch). Again, this has nothing to do with anything other than taste preferences.

frontpage bottle
As odd as it may be, alcohol and to a lesser extent chocolate and coffee are some of the few remaining “foods” that haven’t slowly been turned into “nutrition”. (although, I fear coffee and chocolate are quickly falling to the dark side).

More of a rant than anything else, but I can assure you of one thing – It will be a cold day in hell before any Scotch Distiller starts putting green tea extract or caffeine into their product!!

That being said, it is interesting to note that small amounts of alcohol (the occasional drink) is associated with reduced levels of markers of chronic inflamamtion liek IL-6, CRP and leptin.

Considering the chronic inflammations is associated with a whole host of long term life threatening diseases (including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer) and maybe more people SHOULD consider alcohol for it’s health benefits.

The fourth macronutrient – health benefits without becoming ‘nutrition’

BP

PS- In case you were wondering, drinking ice-water will not make you lose weight, and eating every three hours has nothing to do with preserving your muscle mass. If you want to learn why, then you should read about the benefits of flexible intermittent fasting.

Filed Under: Healthy Ramblings Tagged With: alcohol, alcohol abuse, asceticism, beer and weight loss, chocolate, coffee, diabetes mellitus, Dieting, diets, drinks, extent, Fasting, food and drink, fourth, green tea, Health, healthy lifestyle, innis and gunn, lesser, lose weight, medicine, Nutrition, odd, scotch, tea, the fourth macronutrient

PROMOTED STORIES:
  • What would you say if I told you your workout is insane? Here is a better way.
  • Are The Foods You Eat Triggering Health-Harming “Obesity Toxins” In Your Gut?
  • Trick Your Body Into Burning Fat Like You're On A Low Carb Diet — While You Eat Yummy Carbs Every Day
  • In Just One Day This Simple Strategy Frees You From Complicated Diet Rules — And Eliminates Rebound Weight Gain
  • New Discovery "Flips The OFF Switch" on Stubborn Fat
  • Discover The Surprising Connection Between Exhaustion, Lethargy, Weight Gain and The Air You Breathe
  • Add ¼ teaspoon to your coffee [eliminates fat cells]
  • Revealed: Your Answer To The Most Frustrating Nutrition Myth Of The Past Decade “How Much And What Kind Of Protein Do You REALLY Need To Eat Every Day?”

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Recommended Posts

Why we hate the BMI

  A new study adds to the growing evidence that an elevated BMI increases the risk of a heart attack in otherwise healthy people. In what has been called the largest study of its kind (data on over 500,000 people) researchers classified participants based on their body mass index (BMI), calculated as weight (kg) divided […]

How Many Calories can you Burn in a day?

Have you ever stopped to think that there might be an upper-limit to human metabolism? Basically a ‘ceiling rate’ at which we can burn through calories? Probably not, but don’t worry… I did for you! I’ve heard rumors of people eating well over 10,000 calories during a single cheat day, or even every day during […]

Reverse Taper Intermittent Fasting

The concept of the Reverse Taper Diet is still one of my favorite ideas. Without getting too technical, the concept is that you should be in your largest calorie deficit (eating the least amount of food) at the beginning of your diet, when you have the most fat to lose and thus the most fat […]

Fasting for Weight Loss – Setting the Record Straight

Paleo eating and vegan eating are the EXACT SAME THING. This is why any and all research on Paleo diets can be used for Vegan diets, and vice versa. It’s also why any personal experiences people have had with a Vegan diet can be directly applied to what you will probably experience with the Paleo […]

Never Skip Leg Day

Friends don’t let friends skip leg day, or so the saying goes… Small legs, chicken legs, the triumphant retort of any one to any body with a good bench or built upper body… But is it justified? Legs are important to sports performance and good physique, not to mention your long term health (A smaller […]






Get a copy of my book “Zen of Nutrition” for FREE here!

We respect your email privacy

Footer

About Brad Pilon

Brad is an expert on intermittent fasting as it relates to losing weight and gaining muscle. He's also the author of Eat Stop Eat.
[ Read more... ]
Terms & Privacy

Floating link to newsletter

Read my
newsletter!
Copyright © bradpilon.com