Health benefits of moderate drinking questioned

haidut

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messtafarian

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i wonder about alcohol. Historically people have used it for thousands of years; it still is delivered to construction sites in Germany where workers drink all day long; on ships most sailors in earlier times were allotted a gallon of beer a day.

Currently, we human beings drink a *lot*; and this is not something like PUFA where it's only been part of the food supply for 100 years. It seems to me that if it's been around *that* long and is ingestible there has to be some survival benefit. If there were not, it would eventually have killed off the drinkers. One of the larger benefits I think is that alcohol can be a source of calories when calories are somewhat scarce -- before there were ways to extract sugar and produce available out of season alcohol was a way to preserve food energy from food that would otherwise rot.

I also wonder about the idea of clear spirits. Vodka is the national drink in Russia and they are intensely unhealthy over there scientists say due to drink. Most men don't live to see sixty.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25961063
 

jaa

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mess,

I think one of main reasons alcohol was drunk back in the day is because it stores much better than water which would go off. That doesn't mean it's ideal, just that it's better than dying of thirst. Russians drink a lot more than most people, I'd bet that's why they die off more. There are likely some health benefits to moderate drinking, like stress reduction and blood thinning, but I think healthy people would be healthier if they didn't drink. Aside from liver damage, alcohol messes with your gut bacteria and intestinal permeability and disrupts sleep, two things that seem essential to good health.
 

imintobigwomen

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People have their ways of justifying their actions. I think it messed up you gut much worse then other drugs.

I bet you a carbon moxiade breathe reader could prove this.
 

Blossom

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sunmountain said:
what are clear spirits?
thanks
Think "looks like water". Some examples are vodka and many gins and tequilas. There may be others that I'm not aware of too.
 
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messtafarian said:
i wonder about alcohol. Historically people have used it for thousands of years; it still is delivered to construction sites in Germany where workers drink all day long; on ships most sailors in earlier times were allotted a gallon of beer a day.

Currently, we human beings drink a *lot*; and this is not something like PUFA where it's only been part of the food supply for 100 years. It seems to me that if it's been around *that* long and is ingestible there has to be some survival benefit. If there were not, it would eventually have killed off the drinkers. One of the larger benefits I think is that alcohol can be a source of calories when calories are somewhat scarce -- before there were ways to extract sugar and produce available out of season alcohol was a way to preserve food energy from food that would otherwise rot.

I also wonder about the idea of clear spirits. Vodka is the national drink in Russia and they are intensely unhealthy over there scientists say due to drink. Most men don't live to see sixty.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25961063

Shouldn't it be a quarter of men don't live to see sixty? Average is sixty-five.
 

ballomar

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The whole debate on alcohol has been hijacked by puritans and hedonists. As people interested in nutrition we need to get beyond this.

- ethanol is a natural - the body produces about 3g/day
- people have been consuming alcohol for thousands of years
- what's evolutionary novel are distilled spirits
- alcohol is metabolised quickly first to acetaldehyde and then to Acetyl-CoA which can be used for various things including energy production
- alcohol can be converted to energy quickly, which supports the idea of giving avalanche victims a shot of brandy, or farm workers a midday beer.
- a secret in sports nutrition is that a small amount of alcohol after training can aid recovery because the products of alcohol metabolism go to the mitochondria

When I wake in the night, I have tried Peat's recommendation of having sugar/honey. For me, it works fantastically in promoting warmth. The thing is a shot of spirits seems to behave similarly because the body breaks down the alcohol into products that can aid in metabolism.

I now believe that alcohol can be used as a functional food in certain circumstances. This is not to say that one should drink too much.
 
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But isn't the metabolism at a deficit? Sounds a bit like detoxification. Also ethanol is a chaotrope. Ethanol metabolism consumes NAD+ and produces ROS.
 

mt_dreams

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Wouldn't it also be important to look at the effects of ingesting alcohol with a pufa rich diet? I've seen a couple of doctors say not to mix the two for liver reasons.
 

tara

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ballomar said:
- ethanol is a natural - the body produces about 3g/day.
Seems like a good case for drinking up to 1 tsp of spirits/day if your body is having trouble manufacturing it. :):
 

gretchen

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I drank one glass of wine a week for several years beginning in the late 2000s. I feel better since I stopped.
 

narouz

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Man, I've tried a few times to like gin and vodka and rum.
But I just can't.
They don't make me feel high.
Only beer works... :(
 

sladerunner69

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mt_dreams said:
Wouldn't it also be important to look at the effects of ingesting alcohol with a pufa rich diet? I've seen a couple of doctors say not to mix the two for liver reasons.


When I'm staying away from PUFA I can seriously drink an absurd amount and recover fantastically quickly from it. People think it's like a superhuman ability I have. The intoxicating buzz is much less per drink though, if that makes sense. Which makes drinking, especially at bars, expensive. And I feel so good when I'm healthy and sober, I'm not often inclined to go get shmammered much anyways.
 

ballomar

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thebigpeatowski said:
Gross narouz, nobody actually "likes" gin, do they??? (shudders)

Well, I love it if it comes in the form of an extra dry Bombay Sapphire martini.
 
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narouz said:
Man, I've tried a few times to like gin and vodka and rum.
But I just can't.
They don't make me feel high.
Only beer works... :(

Hipster gut bacteria :lol:
 

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