You aren’t making it up if a beer has you eyeing the chips or a late-night slice of pizza. There is new science to back it up: alcohol stirs up a drive for protein that points you in the direction of savoury things. And when that urge is met with a highly processed snack, your energy intake has a way of going up in a hurry. It is a mix that has consequences for your weight and how you feel.
Why you can’t say no to a salty snack with a drink
For all the energy in a glass of wine or a pint, it can still work up an appetite. The liver will let out a hormone known as FGF21 once you start drinking, and it tells the brain to look for protein. Once that happens, you are more apt to want something savoury than something on the sweet side.
It is the kind of thing that makes the old custom of having a side with your drink make sense. Some in the field call it the ‘aperitif effect’ – the alcohol whets the appetite and makes the savoury part of your meal or a social hour all the more enjoyable.
A look at the numbers from Australia
The researchers wanted to see what this does in the real world, so they put together a model to tie the physiology to the way people actually eat. They were looking at the interplay between FGF21, a little hard liquor and the desire for protein.
They ran the model against the daily food diaries of 9,337 adults from the Australian Adult Health Survey. A third of them had been on the tipple on the day of the survey. Sure enough, those who drank were eating more of the savoury stuff, but whether it added to their overall energy load came down to what they put on their plate.
‘Protein decoys’ and the like
Some of the foods we reach for don’t do much to answer that protein call. You have your meat, fish, chicken and legumes, which are good for it. Then there are the modern, made-from-scratch snacks. A lot of them are put together to have a savoury hit but are light on the protein and heavy on the fat and carbs.
The study’s authors have a name for them: ‘protein decoys’. Your run-of-the-mill hot dog, a handful of crackers or some pizza. They give the brain the flavour it wants but don’t follow through. So you end up still hungry, snacking again and overdoing it on the energy front.
What they saw was a clear divide. Have some alcohol and then some lean meat or a pulse, and you get your protein without the calorie count spiking. But if you are relying on fatty meats and the decoys I mentioned, you are likely to go over and put on a pound or two.
And you don’t even need the booze for this to happen. An ultra-processed diet is a one-way ticket to weight gain. Part of it is 'protein leverage‘ – if you are short on protein, you just keep on eating to make up for it. That is why you can be done with your chips and still be hankering for a fry up.
So, what about that next round?
Alcohol is going to put some energy in you and also make you want for something with a savoury edge. When the food you pick to go with it is low in protein and highly processed, you are in for a rough time of it.
Here is how to make the most of a night out or a quiet weekend in:
– Let the drink bring on the cravings for something with a taste to it
– Go with some eggs, a piece of lean meat, some seafood or even roasted chickpeas
– Put the chips, the pizza and the other decoys aside
– You’ll be better off for it, calorie-wise
Putting it in perspective
Australia is up there with the rest of the world in terms of how much we drink, how much we process our food and our obesity rates. If you are a regular, it is useful to know that when you have a savoury tooth after a drink, your body is after protein. Give it to you with some cold cuts, an egg or some shellfish.
Don’t be had by the fat- and carb-laden imitations that seem to hit the spot but don’t. The researchers say if you pair your alcohol with these, your total energy is going to be higher than it should be.
In the end, it is simple: the alcohol has your brain in the mood for savoury, and what you do next is up to you. Feed the protein drive with a whole food and you won’t be tempted to go on a junk food run. Go for the easy option and the hunger will be with you all night.
