Alcohol is funny stuff, as the night-clubber said when he found two wives waiting up for him. It provides plenty of calories and burns with a lovely light, especially on plum pudding. It burns within you with the same intensity at the rate of 7 calories per gram, nearly twice the output of protein or carbohydrate and within a couple of calories of the high-heat level of fats.

Alcohol provides a fourth kind of calories.Practically alone among food materials, alcohol can be absorbed directly from the stomach without the intervention of digestion. Once it is in the blood it has no place to go. There are no friendly storehouses to welcome it, as is the case with other foods. Consequently it has to be burned, liberated as heat and energy. It takes about 3.5 hours for the average person to burn i ounce of alcohol, the amount you or someone else gets from two ounces of 100 proof whiskey.

Number among the virtues of alcohol the fact that its energy is rapidly available and that it has its place in medical practice. It also encourages a tautly nervous person to relax and for that reason, especially among the elderly, it is sometimes an aid to digestion.

For most of us, however, alcohol goes to work so fast producing energy that other foods we have eaten aren't given a chance. They aren't needed while alcohol is taking over the whole job and they hate to cross the picket line. They can be stored in the body if alcohol can't, so the food that isn't needed just transforms itself to fat in the hope that it will be appreciated at a later date.

If your daily calorie count takes due notice of the energy value of alcohol, however, you can see that all your food is assimilated by keeping it within maintenance limits. Alcohol calories count just the same as any other, even though they aren't very good calories.

One way around this problem that some people have used successfully is to do some extra exercise at some time in the week to make up for a good night out with a few drinks.

Alcohol tends to make you feel hungry and so you are more likely to eat more, when you are drinking. You can also notice yourself feeling more hungry the next day, as alcohol burns sugar. So you can find yourself bingeing the day after you have had some alcohol. So if you want to drink alcohol and you are on a diet, you need to be very careful! Less alcohol equals less weight gain.