How Drinking On An Empty Stomach Can Affect Your Blood Sugar Levels

Many of us are familiar with the fact that the alcohol hits you harder when you skip dinner before a night out. The awful hangover that follows the day after is a testament to that, as the Mayo Clinic tells us.

Maybe you skip food in an effort to save calories. But really, you should make sure you're eating before you drink, according to Bonnie Taub-Dix, RDN. The registered dietician said that in actuality, drinking on an empty stomach does significant harm, especially in the long run.

According to Eat This, Not That!, drinking on an empty stomach can have a negative impact on your blood sugar levels, causing them to either become too low or too high because of the lack of food. A blood sugar spike can result in an increased risk of heart disease, due to there being no food to stabilize the alcohol ingested.

In addition, drinking on an empty stomach on a regular basis can lead to binge eating later on, due to previous restriction and decreased control from the alcohol, according to the same article.

Now that we've examined how consistently drinking with no food inside of you can cause problems in the future, let's look at how having an abnormal blood sugar level can ruin a fun night out. It's a given that when you're drinking alcohol in excess, your senses become impaired. This effect is heightened when a person is not eating, thus causing most of the alcohol to be absorbed into the bloodstream instead of being absorbed more slowly as a result of the presence of food, according to Healthline.

Inebriation is a messy business in so many ways. You might feel unpleasant side effects such as headaches and other forms of nausea, due to the levels of alcohol in your bloodstream still rising even after your last drink.

In conclusion, the calories you'll save by not eating aren't worth the myriad of issues you're inflicting on yourself when you drink on an empty stomach. At least have a snack before starting the party, Marty.