Why does drinking make you hungry?

Wine doesn’t make you fat, but eating pizza when you’re drunk does.

Why do we end up eating a whole cheese pizza after a night of drinking? The effects of alcohol on the brain causes a skew in how we regulate calorie intake for 2 reasons:

• BLOOD SUGAR DROP: Drinking dry wine actually causes your blood sugar to drop. This is because your body focuses on metabolizing the alcohol calories first before food calories. The result is that your brain sees this information a little blindly and responds with ‘uh oh, we need more blood sugar. Go eat something!’
• TRICKS YOUR ‘PRIMITIVE’ BRAIN: Alcohol causes a temporary effect on a part of your brain that causes you to feel hungry, aroused and have to pee at the same time. These activities are controlled in your hypothalamus (high-po-thall-lam-us) which is an early part of the human brain located above the brain stem. It regulates everything from sex drive and body temperature to appetite.