Out of all the organic compounds, few spark as much attention as alcohol. Alcohol is complex and volatile, when referring to alcoholic beverages it is known as ethanol. Pure ethanol in its most basic state has the molecular formula C2H6O. Ethanol is a toxin to the human body and when concentrations peak to a dangerous level the body induces vomiting. Vomiting is a primary defense against many ingestible poisons. Ethanol is a clear and odorous liquid that affects living organisms by acting as a lipid solvent. If alcohol is consumed in a moderate fashion it can produce a euphoric feeling. Once the level of moderation is broken and access alcohol accumulates in the blood stream the euphoric feeling can dissipate and leave the drinker feeling poorly. One single standard drink is equal to 13.7 grams. Many standard drinks are mixed with sugars, flavoring, and further diluted with water. The national recommendation for alcoholic beverages is two or fewer drinks for an adult male or one or fewer drinks for an adult woman in a twenty four hour period. From a health standpoint drinking within the national recommendations can help reduce the harmful bacteria Helicobacter pylori that have been known to create stomach ulcers. Drinking in moderation has also been linked to reduced chance of stroke, type two diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease. A common position on alcohol is that it can increase the chances of cancers located in the throat, colon and rectum, prostate gland, stomach, esophagus, and many other anatomical locations.
There are many health benefits from the consumption of alcoholic beverages, reduction of heart disease takes the number one spot for importance. Heart disease is the most common killer in America i...
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Nutrion Concepts & Controversies 13e
Controversy 3 Alcohol and Nutrition: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risk?
Pages [100-110]
Wechsler, Henry, PhD, Jae Eun Lee, DrPH, Toben F. Nelson, MS, and Meichun Kuo, ScD.
It is impossible to give a clear answer to whether or not alcohol is bad or good for the body. However, one can conclude that heavy alcohol consumption only presents adverse effects. Everybody is different, and the effects of alcohol on a person varies depending on the person’s age, gender, stage in life, genetic makeup, family history, and current fitness level. One must also consider that these benefits and adverse effects of alcohol are influenced by nutrition and physical activity habits. The positive effects are inhibited if someone is not active or mindfully eating healthy. Conversely, the negative effects are enhanced with a similar lifestyle. The facts are presented in this article about the composition and effects of alcohol on the human body and culture. One ought to take into consideration whether the rewards outweigh the risk of drinking alcohol, and if so, what quality and quantity. Whatever the position, one cannot deny the benefits of healthy, active
“Beyond Hangovers: Understanding Alcohol's Impact Your Health.” Bethesda, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2010. Print.
Alcoholism accounts for more than 15% of health care costs in the elderly. It is associated with an estimated 100,000 deaths per year in the United States. Alcohol consumption can produce both benefits and risks. In terms of benefits, men who drink two to six alcoholic beverages per week have decreased mortality rates and lower cardiovascular disease when compared with abstainers. On the negative side, two studies of 300,000 men demonstrated increased mortality among those consuming more than 2 to 3 drinks daily. Women, are more affected by less alcohol than men, perhaps because they have a lower blood volume, and so it’s distribution and decreased activity for gastric alcohol dehydrogenase are increased.
Then Thomas asked a nutritionist Shelby Starnes about alcohol. She says, “Alcohol is seven calories per gram, which is almost twice that of protein or carbohydrates, and a little less than fat”. She says that is because some men think that alcohol is zero calories and they think that they can add alcohol to their diet. Also, Thomas says that science can back up the truth about alcohol. A cardiologist Salvatore Trazzera stated that alcohol consumption has harmful effects on cholesterol and triglyceride levels, predicting drinks to premature coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, and abnormal heart rhythms.
Roger E. Meyer writes this article to explain the effects of alcohol and how it affects the body. Once alcohol is taken into the body it is absorbed from the stomach and the small intestine and into the bloodstream. If too much alcohol is taken in the stomach may secrete a mucous that will slow absorption. One tenth of the alcohol exits form the body as sweat or urine, as the rest is slowly broken down by the body. This article and information can be helpful to me because it will give me a background and information on alcohol and what happens when one consumes it.
Dale et al. (2016) reported that there were several typical differences between women in the drinkers and nondrinkers ca...
The three basic nutritional components found in food--carbohydrates, proteins, and fats--are used as energy after being converted to simpler products. Some alcoholics ingest as much as 50 percent of their total daily calories from alcohol, often neglecting important foods. Even when food intake is adequate, alcohol can damage the mechanisms by which the body controls blood glucose levels, resulting in either increased or decreased blood glucose (glucose is the body's principal sugar. As a result, alcohol causes the brain and other body tissue to be deprived of glucose needed for energy and function. Although alcohol is an energy source, how the body processes and uses the energy from alcohol is more complex than can be explained by a simple calorie conversion value. For example, alcohol provides an average of 20 percent of the calories in the diet of the upper third of drinking Americans, and we might expect many drinkers who consume such amounts to be obese. Instead, national data indicate that, despite higher caloric intake, drinkers are no more obese than nondrinkers. Also, when alcohol is substituted for carbohydrates, calorie for calorie, subjects tend to lose weight, indicating that they derive less energy from alcohol than from food
Mary C. Dufour, "Twenty-five Years of Alcohol Epidemiology: Trends, Techniques, and Transitions," Alcohol Research and Health Spring 1995: 77-84.
Alcohol is an ethanol containing substance that is a common beverage in many social and private settings. Alcohol is also a teratogen, therefore alcohol co...
Saitz, Richard, M.D. "Unhealthy Alcohol Use." New England Journal of Medicine (2005): 596. Web. 7 Apr. 2014.
beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Health problem and drunk driving hit the list. Alcohol interferes with the brain’s communication pathways, and can affect the way the brain looks and works. In addition, alcohol causes the pancreas to produce toxic substances that can eventually lead to pancreatitis, a dangerous inflammation and swelling of the blood vessels in the pancreas that prevents proper digestion [3]. Not only that, alcohol can also increase the risk of developing certain cancer. But almost every drinker knows these horrible diseases above, then why they never stop drinking? The point is, a short-term alcohol consumption does tiny harm to human’s body, only long-term alcohol consumption can impair the body badly. Nevertheless, the contradiction is apparent to find out: when a drinker finds that there is something wrong with their health, it is too late. And in a drinker’s early life, they can not completely realize which kind of damage that alcohol consumption can lead because they were healthy at that time——at least on the surface. Alcohol just like a chronic disease, making drinkers less vigilant, and brings on severe health consequences in the end.
Ethyl alcohol or ethanol, or most often known simply as alcohol, can come in the form of beer, wine, or liquor. A depressant affects the central nervous system, although many would believe it to be a stimulant. Many people get more energetic and stimulated, but this is only because alcohol affects parts of the brain that control judgment. The stimulant effect of alcohol actually amounts to depression of self-control.... ...
Alcohol in the form of alcoholic beverages has been consumed by humans since pre-historic times, for a variety of hygiene dietary, medicinal, religions and recreational reasons. According to the NIH Senior Health, drinking too much alcohol affects many parts of the body. It can be especially harmful to the liver, the organ that metabolizes (breaks down) alcohol and other harmful substances. People who drink heavily for a long time can develop diseases such as liver inflammation (alcoholic hepatitis) or severe liver scarring (cirrhosis). Alcohol-related liver disease can cause death. According to the statistics in the year 2010 by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and prevention) the number of discharges with chronic liver disease and cirrhosis as the first-listed diagnosis was 101,000 persons, while the number of deaths has been 31,903 persons.