Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yesterday]

Everyone knows (I hope) that when you drink alcohol - it takes the body 1 hour to digest/process one standard drink...

and everyone knows (I hope) that when you drink alcohol and food together - the body digests/processes the alcohol FIRST..

so logic/science implies that when you drink alcohol and food together - the body is so busy digesting/processing/burning the alcohol first - that it does not have time to process/digest the food..

therefore - the body simply stores the food/energy/calories as FAT and/or cannot process the fat in the food so just stores it...

so the custom of - drinking in Korea together with eating anju (food) along with the drinks should make people fatter - as the food is stored by the body as fat - whilst the body is busy breaking down the alcohol...

any comments? fact or fiction?

Robert C. Atkins -

"Here's the problem with all alcoholic beverages, and the reason I recommend refraining from alcohol consumption. Alcohol, whenever taken in, is the first fuel to burn. While that's going on, your body will not burn fat. This does not stop the weight loss, it simply postpones it, since the alcohol does not store as glycogen, you immediately go back into ketosis/lipolysis after the alcohol is used up.


Alcohol is metabolized differently than other foods and beverages. Under normal conditions, your body gets its energy from the calories in carbohydrates, fats and proteins that need to be slowly digested in the stomach�but not when alcohol is present. When alcohol is consumed, it gets special privileges and needs no digestion. The alcohol molecules diffuse through the stomach wall as soon as they arrive and can reach the brain and liver in minutes. This reaction is slightly slowed when there is also food in your system, but as soon as the mixed contents enter the small intestine, the alcohol grabs first place and is absorbed quickly. The alcohol then arrives at the liver for processing. The liver places all of its attention on the alcohol. Therefore, the carbohydrates (glucose) and dietary fats are just changed into body fat, waiting to be carried away for permanent fat storage in the body. http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=563

Another consideration: alcohol can also slow the process by which your body burns fat. The alcohol calories you consume aren't stored. Instead, they're converted to acetate, a type of fuel that the body burns quickly. As a result, you burn off your alcohol calories before you burn the fat you are trying to eliminate by increasing your exercise and cutting back on your food intake. http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/QAA360805

Rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into a substance called acetate.

In other words, your body tends to use whatever you feed it. Consequently, when acetate levels rise, your body simply burns more acetate, and less fat. In essence, acetate pushes fat to the back of the queue. http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm


Many alcoholic drinks contain lots of energy. Calories from alcohol are also added to energy from the food eaten during the day. An interesting point to note is alcohol cannot be stored so its energy is metabolized until all alcohol is cleared from the body. It also means the body is limited to burning stored fat when drinking alcohol. People who drink frequently may have increased potential for weight gain because;

A higher percentage of the energy from food eaten during the day may be converted and stored as fat.

Less energy from body fat stores can be used while alcohol is in the bloodstream. http://www.weightlossforall.com/alcohol.htm

[Fishead soup]

Depends what you order and how much you drink. I've gone out with people who ordered the fruit and drank moderatly. I've also gone out with people who ordered fried chicken and got disgustingly drunk.

Eating fruit will also replentish valuable vitamins that get lost when consuming alcohol such as Calcium.

[CeleryMan]

Fruit merely exacerbates the potential for a nasty hangover ask any 10%'er

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Luciddreamer]

Eating a lot of ramen (mmm soo good in Korea) makes you fat, also.

[Chet Wautlands]

Food has to be digested before it is stored as fat. If you drink alcohol and eat food at the same time, the food won't suddenly become fat. It will sit around and wait to be digested.

[curlygirl]

Alcohol = calories
Food = more calories

Why is it a mystery that both eating and drinking calories (thus increasing your caloric intake) will make you gain weight if you take in more calories than you can burn?

[victorology]

[Chet Wautlands]

Who cares?!?! We're gonna dance it off tonight! Whoo! I don't want this night to end! ... I love this song!

[Socks]

[RokofKangnam]

[Robot_Teacher]

You're fat. Korean alcohol has special chemical qualities that make you get drunk even though you're eating hundreds of calories of food. Regular alcohol doesn't allow you to get so drunk if eating while eating makes you come down. The Koreans have chemical induced fast acting booze for short 2 hour hof/restaurant drinking/eating events; not partying. The only thing is the hangover starts the same night; not the morning after and is worse than with western booze.

It's not meant to be drunk alone to get drunk, but as a buzzer with food to stabilize it's top secret dangerous evil chemistry. Anju does make you fat.

[coralreefer_1]

This is really one thing I miss about the US. It seems that with the exception of going to the club, there are not many other places to go and have a good time with your friends and drink that does not involve sitting down at a table eating a bunch of food.

Maybe it is just me, and I don't meant to say anything bad about my friends, but I find it somewhat boring to be sitting at a table with people and have nothing to do but drink/eat and talk.

I miss the bowling alleys where you can get pitchers of beer and drink while bowling. Also miss the pool halls that serve alcohol (I know there are many in Korea that serve alcohol but a typical pool hall is a brightly lit room with no jukebox and most likely a tv in the corner showing a gag show or soccer.

I would not say bowling/pool are great exercise, but they do certainly burn more calories that sitting down at a table.

These kinds of activities keep the mind busy so that we tend to focus more on the drinking/chatting/having a good time and not sitting at a table staring at food.

[Robot_Teacher]

[OBwannabe]

Kind of an interesting post. But remember. The bottom line is that if you eat and drink, as opposed to just drinking, of course you will gain more weight. You are adding calories to your diet. Which is really the bottom line.

Also, the wrong assumtion has been made. Food that has not been digested cannot be stored as fat. It must be converted first. So just because the food is sitting in your stomach longer because you are hoisting a few, doesn't necessarily mean it will be stored as fat.

Plus, we often eat fatty food while drinking(well at least I do.) Not only does a gram of fat have more than double the amount of stored energy/calories that either a gram of protein or carbs have, but fat is more easily stored as such. Carbohydrates are much more easily utilized as stored glycogen in the muscle or near-instant engergy. Depending on which type of carb is being consumed.