I have found few things quite as pleasurable as getting handed a cold frothy beer at the end of a grueling race. A “cold one” is to the athlete what a damsel’s rose was for a victorious sparring knight. It is one of those rare moments where the extra calories are not only welcome, but probably needed. The problem is that an alcoholic beer those calories are what experts call “empty” calories.
Defining a calorie
Before delving deeper, let’s define a calorie: it is a tiny pellet of energy provided by food to your body. Of course on race day your need for these energy pellets skyrockets to propel you across the finish line. The average runner consumes 100 calories per mile, which come out to about 2,620 calories during a marathon.
Alcohol’s “Empty Calories”
If you were to put that back into your body through beer you would want to go out and buy a 24-pack of Budweisers and drink approximately 19 of them to get what you need back in. Yes, I know for many of us who enjoy a few cold ones that might sound like a worthy prize. It’s like that damsel giving the knight two dozen roses.
The experts tell us though that alcoholic beer gives us “empty calories”. Truthfully a calorie is a calorie – no matter whether from an alcoholic drink or from a carrot. The difference is what it is packaged with. In a carrot those calories are coming along with a range of vitamins, minerals and fiber – all which swarm your body with a healthy effect. The calorie from an alcoholic drink though tend to come with very little “packaging” in terms of vitamins, and the alcohol actually tends to dominate your body’s metabolic process because your body is trying to rid itself of the “toxin” of alcohol.
NA Beer: fewer calories, but more nutrition
Recently, I have noticed that the cold one being offered at races is alcohol free. At my 70.3 miler in Wilmington last fall I was met with an Athletic Lite – a 25 calorie craft beer – brewed by Athletic company, a company that has built it’s business around the health-conscious athlete. While the calorie count is lower (you’d need to drink 90 of those suckers to make up for your burned calories in a marathon) they pack in the polyphenols, antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory properties.
The NA beer actually is a good recovery drink. A study of marathoners in Munich in 2012 found that those who consumed 2-3 cans of NA beers daily for 3 weeks prior and 2 weeks after the race were 3.25 less likely to develop an upper respiratory tract infection than those who drank the placebo.
Sensible Indulge
What I love about an NA beer is that I can drink it before, during or after exercise. Next time you have some NA beer in the fridge give it a try. There’s something to popping back the tab, listening to the carbonation hiss and then pounding down a crisp, cold beer without any concern about becoming woozy before the run. And you can drink it knowing that it’s pumping your body with nutrients to sustain you.