Merlin Thomas looks at the truth behind ‘unhealthy’ habits

Cut back on chocolate. Cut down on caffeine. Cut out the booze. These are the first things many of us do to lose weight and feel better. But is it really necessary for a long and healthy life? Decide for yourself after reading the fascinating science behind our little vices, as revealed in a new book by Merlin Thomas, a leading professor of medicine. 

THIN PEOPLE EAT MORE CHOCOLATE

Chocolate is full of fat, sugar and calories — yet some studies have shown people who eat chocolate on a regular basis tend to be thinner than those who do not. This is known as the chocolate paradox.

A number of studies have even linked chocolate consumption with improved health, including lower rates of high blood pressure and heart disease. Cocoa powder has a high content of special, flavoursome chemicals known as flavanols, which may have an effect on our bodies.

Chocolate is full of fat, sugar and calories — yet some studies have shown people who eat chocolate on a regular basis tend to be thinner than those who do not

As for whether chocolate keeps you slim, it may be that overweight people already know they should eat less of it — so it may be that they just aren’t admitting to eating it, therefore skewing the data.

Or it could be that the combination of chemicals in chocolate helps us to feel satisfied sooner, so we end up eating less on average. Dark chocolate in particular is high in flavanols, which might explain why regular eaters are slimmer.

…AND WHY WE FIND IT HARD TO SAY NO TO IT

There really are mind-altering chemicals in chocolate — including a potent drug called theobromine, the chemistry of which is about 98 per cent the same as caffeine.

It means theobromine has a similar ‘pick-me-up’ effect as a cup of tea or coffee.

While food can slow down the absorption of alcohol, drinking fizzy alcoholic drinks can do the opposite, helping it to bubble along through our stomach and into our bloodstream

While food can slow down the absorption of alcohol, drinking fizzy alcoholic drinks can do the opposite, helping it to bubble along through our stomach and into our bloodstream

Theobromine shares other characteristics with caffeine, too. For example, both can cause heartburn in some people, by relaxing the sphincter that keeps acids safely in our stomach, allowing it to reflux upward.

High levels of theobromine are only found in products made from cocoa powder — so dark chocolate has more theobromine than milk chocolate. In fact, we’d need to eat four times more milk than dark chocolate to get the same buzz, while white chocolate has almost no theobromine to speak of.

FOOD WON’T SOAK UP ALCOHOL

We’re always told not to drink on an empty stomach. Certainly, eating something will stop you getting drunk, to some extent.

Alcohol levels and their effects on the brain are reduced if we mix cheese with wine, or have fish and chips with a beer — but this is not because the food is able to soak up the alcohol.

Alcohol levels and their effects on the brain are reduced if we mix cheese with wine, or have fish and chips with a beer ¿ but this is not because the food is able to soak up the alcohol

Alcohol levels and their effects on the brain are reduced if we mix cheese with wine, or have fish and chips with a beer — but this is not because the food is able to soak up the alcohol

Rather, when we have a meal and our stomach is full, it pours out its contents much more slowly than when it is empty, and so the transit of any alcohol we drink with or after our meal is also slowed.

Ultimately, though, the same amount of alcohol still gets into our system, albeit more slowly.

BEWARE COLD CHAMPAGNE

While food can slow down the absorption of alcohol, drinking fizzy alcoholic drinks can do the opposite, helping it to bubble along through our stomach and into our bloodstream.

The most intoxicating bubbly of them all is champagne, or sparkling wine. With the release of the cork, carbon dioxide dissolved in the champagne starts to escape, partly as gas bubbles and partly just wafting away from the surface of the drink.

When we drink champagne, it is still filled with dissolved gas, which continues to be released in our stomachs, but at a faster rate as it warms to body temperature and gets shaken about.

As the fizz fills our stomach, the stomach is forced to empty its alcoholic contents more rapidly into our intestines, where alcohol absorption is faster. So we get drunk faster on champagne than on the same amount of white wine.

The same intoxicating effect is true of beer or other fizzy drinks, but there is far more dissolved gas in champagne.

And the first glasses poured from the bottle are more intoxicating than the last, as the sooner you drink it, the more gas there is.

The temperature is important, too. Ice-cold champagne gets us more drunk because it doesn’t bubble as much as when it’s warm, so there is much more dissolved gas left to be bubbled up inside us. If we didn’t want to get drunk as quickly, we could drink warm, flat champagne. But a more creative method may be to chase the bubbles from our glass using a swizzle stick — a trick employed by Queen Victoria.

DON’T BLAME A BELLY ON BEER

At least, not directly. We all know alcoholic drinks contain calories, and that excess calories get stored in the body as fat.

Men are more likely to deposit fat around their waist than women, hence so-called beer bellies are more common in, though not exclusive to, men. With women, excess calories often go elsewhere first (usually to bums and thighs).

While some of the calories in our drinks come from the alcohol itself, unlike other nutrients in our diet, those calories cannot be stored in the human body. Alcohol is toxic and so must take priority to be burned off — which is what our liver does.

Men are more likely to deposit fat around their waist than women, hence so-called beer bellies are more common in, though not exclusive to, men

Men are more likely to deposit fat around their waist than women, hence so-called beer bellies are more common in, though not exclusive to, men

But while our liver is busy burning excess alcohol, it doesn’t have the need to burn fat. So your big waist remains unchanged.

The alcohol itself may be only a small part of the weight problem, if at all. In one study, researchers fed participants an excess of calories for two weeks, either in the form of milk chocolate or alcohol.

The chocolate eaters gained 3 kg (6.6 lb), but the drinkers did not get fatter (at least in the short-term), despite the fact that their calorie input was the same.

COFFEE WON’T SOBER YOU UP

Once alcohol is in our blood, there is no going back. There’s nothing we can do to speed up the rate at which it is broken down. Only time can make alcohol go away. People try going for a run, sweating it out or taking a hot shower — but resistance is futile. Any effects are tiny, at best.

Black coffee won’t help, either. Coffee does nothing to our metabolism and actually speeds up stomach emptying, which, like bubbles, can serve to increase our alcohol levels. At best, caffeine only turns a sleepy drunk into a wide-awake drunk.

GOOD NEWS IF YOU HATE RED

It has long been thought that red wine is the only regular tipple that provides any benefits to human health, but this has little basis in fact.

Instead, it’s moderation that seems to be the key. The overall health outcomes in moderate wine drinkers are much the same as those in moderate beer drinkers or those who have a glass of scotch or gin every night.

It has long been thought that red wine is the only regular tipple that provides any benefits to human health, but this has little basis in fact

It has long been thought that red wine is the only regular tipple that provides any benefits to human health, but this has little basis in fact

The health benefits of red wine are often attributed to the antioxidant qualities of its polyphenols, including caffeic acid, gallic acid and resveratrol.

Each of these chemicals has been shown to have potent effects in experiments, but their medicinal qualities remain controversial, especially in the doses delivered to moderate wine drinkers.

Besides, if these antioxidants were so good, then drinking much more would be even better for us. And it isn’t.

CAN WATER HELP A HANGOVER?

Why do we feel so rotten once all the alcohol has left our system? One theory is that hangovers are due to dehydration.

Alcohol interferes with the signal normally coming from the brain telling the kidneys to conserve water and prevent it from being lost into our urine. By blocking the message, the kidneys allow water to spill over into our urine and so we wee more than we might expect just from the amount of fluid we’ve drunk.

For every alcoholic drink we have, the alcohol in it will also cause us to lose around half a cup more than if we had drunk the same volume of water. Have four drinks and we may well be down by almost a litre.

By the next morning, our skin and throat feel dry, our eyes are sunken and our head aches. Drinking extra water at night won’t help prevent dehydration. It will simply make us wee even more, and we’ll still end up feeling rough in the morning.

LIQUORICE MAY HELP

One innovative hangover cure is to use natural chemicals to make our kidneys retain more fluid. One of the most well-known is the chemical in liquorice that gives it its sweetness. This can trigger our kidneys to make less urine, which is the opposite of what alcohol is doing.

Eating liquorice the morning after doesn’t work — by then, it’s too late. So if you don’t mind munching on liquorice between beers, it may be worth a shot.

But there is a catch. If you eat too much liquorice, your kidneys can retain so much fluid that your blood pressure goes up.

One innovative hangover cure is to use natural chemicals to make our kidneys retain more fluid. One of the most well-known is the chemical in liquorice that gives it its sweetness

One innovative hangover cure is to use natural chemicals to make our kidneys retain more fluid. One of the most well-known is the chemical in liquorice that gives it its sweetness

A SIP WILL GIVE A BUZZ

Coffee and tea are drug mules — delivery vehicles for a chemical stimulant known as caffeine.

Caffeine does nothing for the flavour or aroma of tea or coffee, but after we drink it, it quickly enters our brain and blocks the receptors that dull brain activity, so we feel a sense of invigoration, commonly known as the coffee buzz.

In fact, that buzz is just as likely to happen after you drink a cup of tea, which often contains as much caffeine as a cup of standard instant coffee.

It takes around 15 to 20 minutes for caffeine entering our stomach to reach our brain. However, some people seem to experience their coffee buzz much earlier — sometimes within seconds of the first sip.

This is not just gratitude or our sweet imagination. By simply tasting or smelling the bitter twang of caffeine, our brain really does become more alert.

Equally, just swilling coffee in our mouth, even without swallowing, is sometimes enough for it to do its thing.

HOW TO KEEP SMILING

Coffee, tea and red wine all leave an indelible mark — on our teeth. Teeth might look solid and smooth on the outside, but they are slightly porous, enough to let in unsightly stains and keep them there.

There is no easy solution. However, coffee, tea and wine stains any plaque on our teeth much more than the teeth themselves, so keeping our teeth free from plaque could help keep them whiter, too.

Adapted from The Longevity List: Myth Busting The Top Ways To Live A Long And Healthy Life by Merlin Thomas, published by Exisle at £10.99. © Merlin Thomas 2017. To order a copy for £8.79 (offer valid to October 24, visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640.

ENJOY A GUILT-FREE CUPPA 

For the health conscious, the idea of two teaspoons of white sugar per cup of tea or coffee seems abhorrent.

In reality, though, at 15 calories per teaspoon, this doesn’t add up to a lot compared to the 2,000 calories we get elsewhere in our diet every day.

So if you enjoy a hot drink with two sugars, it is really not something you have to give up for health reasons.

The muffin, flapjack or biscuits we’re often inclined to have with a cuppa — all of which will have hundreds of calories — are probably far worse than a spoonful of sugar.

And as our brains run on glucose (sugar), a sugar in your tea or coffee provides the brain with an extra pick-me-up, giving a greater sense of energy than either a hot drink or a sweet treat on its own.

Interestingly, adding milk to your drink will help any brew stay warm for longer, as the milk fat stops as much heat being lost through evaporation (that’d be the steam). Low-fat skimmed milk is not as effective, however.

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