Drunkorexia

For many people, drinking on the weekends and weeknights is just a regular part of the week. Due to all of the extra calories that alcohol can add to one’s calorie count, many people have resorted to drunkorexia. As a sophomore in college who is surrounded by opportunities to drink on a weekly basis, this is a very scary issue.

Drunkorexia is when someone restricts the amount of food they consume all day to make room for the drinks they want to drink at night. Many people do this because one of the effects of eating less before you drink is getting drunk much faster. The less you have consumed, the less food there is to soak up the alcohol. This is starting to show up more, and more especially at colleges.

A study shows that 30 percent of women between ages 18 and 23 diet so they can drink.

There are a lot of risks to this kind of behavior. Cutting down on calories before drinking will not only cause someone to get drunk much faster, which will reduce one’s self-control and it heightens that person’s chance of getting sick from the alcohol. One will also be at risk of not getting the proper nutrients they need to function.

Some conditions that can stem from this kind of behavior include eating disorders and binge drinking which can have serious negative effects on one’s mental, physical and emotional health.

I’m not 21 so I obviously do not drink yet, but if I were going to I would do the exact opposite. I would eat a good hearty meal before I drank to prevent getting sick off of the alcohol. I have seen many other friends suffer from drinking too much alcohol and I don’t want to put myself at risk of getting sick in that way.

Dieting to drink alcohol does not seem worth it to me. If someone is that worried about the extra calories from drinking, going to the gym the next day to burn those calories is a much safer and healthier decision overall.