When you consume alcohol, you're consuming empty calories - calories with no nutritional value.

When people drink too much, it often leads to lapses of judgment and marked increases in irregular behavior, but it can wreak havoc on the bodies of both diabetics and non-diabetics. So, for every ounce of wine that you drink, you're adding (.8 x 25 x 1) or 20 calories. So how, exactly, does alcohol affect the body.

Alcohol leads to weight gain. If you continue to consume the same amounts of food that you normally do, you will gain weight. If you offset the amount of alcohol that you drink, with a corresponding decrease in the amount of food that you eat, you'll deprive yourself of the necessary nutrients to remain healthy. Determining exactly how many extra calories you're taking in with each ounce of alcohol you drink is a simple calculation. Multiply the constant .8 times the proof of the liquor times the number of ounces that you drink. For example, wine is normally around 25 proof.

How Alcohol Affects Those With Diabetes Even though recent studies have highlighted various positive properties of alcohol, especially red wine, these positive properties only manifest themselves if the alcohol consumption is not taken to excess.