Does alcohol make you hungry?

The health conscious amongst us will know that alcoholic drinks contain a lot of calories. A pint of Fosters beer Victoria Bitter has about 200 calories in it (the same as a small blueberry muffin). So it would seem odd that alcohol would make you hungry. But for those of us who enjoy a couple of glasses of tipple know, the post-drink ‘midnight munchies’ is a very real phenomenon.

Scientists have pondered this very question. At first they didn’t believe it, but carefully conducted experiments showed that people who had even unwittingly ingested alcohol would end up feeling more hungry and eating more sometime in the next three hours. Based on their research (full references below), half a pint (one unit) wasn’t enough to interfere with normal eating control, but after four units the ability to regulate food intake went somewhat AWOL – and the drive to eat far exceeds what is needed.

Why does that fry-up look so good after drinking?

The reason as to why we go crazy for a take-away after an alcohol indulgence is a much more difficult question to answer.

Some people have suggested because alcohol reduces our inhibitions, we are more relaxed about what we eat: That ‘health conscious’ part of our brain calms down and so we eat what we really want!

It now seems that this theory is not the whole story.

Last year, a team of researchers from Sussex, UK came up with the answer: Alcohol directly interferes with appetite control in your brain! It was found that after alcohol, food actually looked more appealing! By carefully controlling the food and alcohol intake in a group of volunteers, they also discovered that there were some psychological factors at play: A person’s past experiences of alcohol and food effect what they eat after a drink. So, a person who tends to eat a curry after a beer is quite likely to do the same even if they were tricked into drinking a non-alcoholic beer!

Thanks for reading – comments and feedback are warmly welcomed!

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DISCLAIMER: Stay legal, everything in moderation, and please be Drink Aware. Doctor Stu does not encourage excessive or irresponsible drinking!

References:

S. J. Caton, M. Ball, A. Ahern, M. M. Hetherington, Dose-dependent effects of alcohol on appetite and food intake, Physiology & Behavior, Volume 81, Issue 1, March 2004, Pages 51-58

Martin R. Yeomans, Short term effects of alcohol on appetite in humans. Effects of context and restrained eating, Appetite, Volume 55, Issue 3, December 2010, Pages 565-573