Alcohol & Health

Alcohol in the US Alcohol & Nutrition

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People drink to socialize, celebrate and relax. Alcohol often has a strong effect on individuals, and throughout history, humans have struggled to understand and manage alcohol’s power.

  • Why does alcohol cause us to act and feel differently?

  • How much is too much?

  • Why do some people become addicted while others do not?

Alcohol enters one’s bloodstream as soon as you take your first sip. When it does:

  • Alcohol’s immediate effects can appear within about 10 minutes

  • As one drinks, your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) increases

  • The higher the BAC, the more impaired one becomes due to the effects of alcohol

  • People who drink too much over a long period of time may experience longer-term effects, such as:

    • alcohol dependence

    • organ injury

    • increased risk for certain cancers

Alcohol-induced organ injury can involve nearly every organ/system in the body. ULARC is specifically studying nutrition and liver, intestine, lung, and fetal injury.

See the NIH resources on drinking (Rethinking Drinking) for information, tools and guidance. 

Alcohol in the U.S.

Alcohol use in the U.S. is pervasive. In 2013, in a survey of people ages 18 or older:
86.8%

reported that they drank alcohol at some point in their lifetime

70.7%

reported that they drank in the past year

56.4%

reported that they drank in the past month

Binge and heavy drinking are significant problems.

  • In 2013, 24.6% of people ages 18 or older reported that they engaged in binge drinking in the past month

  • 6.8% reported that they engaged in heavy drinking in the past month.

Nearly 88,000 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making it the 3ʳᵈ leading preventable cause of death in the United States.

In 2006, alcohol misuse problems cost the United States $223.5 billion, and almost ¾ of the total cost of alcohol misuse is related to binge drinking.

Alcohol & Nutrition

Alcohol and nutrition can interact at multiple levels. For example, alcohol metabolism can result in the generation of reactive oxygen species, which can deplete endogenous nutritional antioxidant stores and contribute to oxidative stress. Heavy alcohol consumption also can cause poor intestinal absorption of certain nutrients (e.g., zinc) or increase nutrient losses (e.g., by increasing zinc and magnesium excretion in the urine). Moreover, nutrition can have a far-reaching impact through altering epigenetic mechanisms, such as methylation and acetylation of DNA and associated proteins. Finally, the degree of alcohol-related malnutrition can be associated with the severity of organ injury (e.g., alcoholic hepatitis).

From a nutrition perspective, alcohol is a significant source of calories, but these can be considered to be “empty” calories—that is, they contain few micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, normally found in most food sources. Moderate or Health Drinking is considered to be no more than one standard drink/day for women or no more than two standard drinks/day for men. Recent studies from our group have shown that alcoholics, without major liver disease, admitted to a treatment program and patients admitted to the hospital with moderate or severe alcoholic hepatitis were drinking about 15 drinks/day, or >2000 calories with little or no nutritional value.

Thus, the interactions between nutrients and alcohol are complex.  The University of Louisville Alcohol Research Center is the only NIAAA-funded Alcohol Research Center in the U.S. with nutrition as a focus.  A recent publication from the ULARC reviews these interactions [Barve S, Chen S-Y, Kirpich I, Watson WH, McClain CJ.  Development and Prevention/Treatment of Alcohol-Induced Organ Injury: The Role of Nutrition. Alcohol Research: Current Reviews 201738(2):289-302].