Beer (Full Strength)
Food · Drink · Food, Typed Supps
Mostly water, alcohol, and calories your body prioritises burning.
Stage by stage
- Absorption (Stomach and small intestine): Ethanol crosses passively; an empty stomach produces a sharper peak.
- Priority clearance (Liver): Alcohol cannot be stored, so the liver clears it ahead of other fuels.
- Fuel switching (Systemic metabolism): Fat oxidation is suppressed while alcohol is being cleared.
- Fluid loss (Kidneys): Vasopressin suppression produces net fluid loss despite the volume drunk.
Timing
Food slows absorption and lowers the peak. Alcohol within a few hours of bed reliably degrades sleep quality even when it speeds sleep onset.
Time to effect
- 15–30 min: Subjective effects begin.
- ~1 hr/drink: Clearance rate is roughly one standard drink per hour.
Allergens
Contains: Gluten. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Pescatarian, Kosher, Keto. Depends on the product: Vegan, Vegetarian, Low-FODMAP.
Satiety
Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.
Environmental footprint
1.2 kg CO2e and 132 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Barley (beer)" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Cheap — roughly £2 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 36
- Protein: 0.4g
- Carbohydrate: 2.3g
- Sodium: 4mg
Food vs. supplement
Beer contains B vitamins and potassium in amounts too small to matter. There is no version of it that functions as nutrition.
Kitchen tip
Eating before or while drinking slows gastric emptying and blunts the peak blood alcohol meaningfully.
Common myth
“Low carb beer is the healthier choice.” In reality: Alcohol carries 7 calories per gram — nearly as much as fat — and in full-strength beer it supplies most of the energy. Cutting the carbohydrate leaves the dominant calorie source untouched, and changes nothing about the alcohol itself, which is the part health guidance is actually concerned with.
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