As Dry January has some people putting down the bottle for the first month of the year, the health benefits of eliminating alcohol are in the spotlight.
But TV personality Kelly Ripa, host of ABC’s “Live with Kelly and Mark,” revealed that giving up alcohol had an unexpected effect on her.
On Wednesday’s episode, when Andy Cohen co-hosted alongside Ripa, he brought up that he is “in the middle of dry January.”
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“Usually, a little weight loss comes my way after,” he commented. “That’s not really happening yet.”
Ripa responded that when she quit drinking in 2017, she expected there to be a “windfall of weight loss.”
“Because everybody’s like, ‘Well you are going to get too skinny … you can’t afford to lose it,’” she said. “I gained 12 pounds!”
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“I don’t understand this ‘magical weight loss’ that people [imply],” she continued. “I think I just took to eating the sugars … because apparently, alcohol is like a lot of sugar.”
In 2020, Ripa revealed to People Magazine that she and her friends decided to try a sober month back in 2017, and that she “liked the way [she] felt.”
“Not that I was a heavy drinker — I wasn’t someone who got drunk — but even like two glasses of wine at a girl’s night out dinner, I would feel it the next morning,” she said.
“I just didn’t really feel the need or desire to go back to it,” Ripa went on. “It wasn’t really a choice or a thought, it was just, ‘Yeah, I guess I don’t drink anymore.’”
Dr. Kathleen Jordan, Midi Health chief medical officer and women’s health and weight management specialist, shared some health benefits of eliminating or limiting alcohol, including reduced cancer risk and weight loss.
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“Less drinking eliminates the hundreds of calories in the drinks themselves (anywhere from 160 to 400 or more calories per drink) and less drinking is often accompanied by less late-night snacking,” the California-based doctor told Fox News Digital.
“Less alcohol also helps your body get a good night’s sleep, while bad sleep is associated with weight gain. Alcohol interferes with the ability to reach a deep sleep, which then contributes to daytime fatigue and sluggishness – and ultimately to weight gain.”
But limiting alcohol might not pose these benefits for everyone, Jordan noted.
If low or moderate drinkers experience weight gain after eliminating alcohol, the expert said that’s most likely due to substituting drinking with snacking or sugary mocktails.
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Jordan recommended replacing alcohol with different variations of water instead, including bubbly, flat or garnished water, which will satiate “nervous eating” and the habit of drinking.
Dry January also occurs when the climate is cold and dark, with most Americans tending to spend more time indoors.
To support the benefits of not drinking and prevent weight gain, Jordan advised keeping up with physical activity even during the winter months.
