Consuming alcohol is now back in fashion. Alcohol was bad when it was indigenous liquor and ruined livelihoods. It is a sign of refinement when the same is imported and packaged in a shiny bottle. This unfortunately is not a new phenomenon. “யவனர் தன்கலந்தந்த தண்கமழ் தேறல்" (புறநானூறு-56). It means "The flavored liquor brought in good looking bottles by Yavanar (Romans/Greeks)". Food and drinks are becoming a must when friends and family meet today. Even if livelihoods are not being ruined, lives are being ruined as we become sicker as a society.
So, what happens to our bodies when we consume alcohol? Alcohol, being a toxin, is mostly processed by the liver where all toxins including poison are broken down. Enzymes in the liver helps break down alcohol. In the first step, alcohol is broken down into acetaldehyde which is still toxic. In the second step, acetaldehyde is broken down into acetate, not toxic. In the third step, acetate is broken down into energy, water, and carbon-di-oxide.
The others organs that process alcohol in lesser quantities are the pancreas and brain which also have these enzymes to break down alcohol. So, the organ that gets damaged by alcohol first is the liver followed by the pancreas and brain. You must have heard about fatty liver. Read on to find out why the disease is named fatty liver.
Alcohol has about 7 calories per gram. In perspective, carbs and protein have 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram. So, it must be treated as a high-calorie food. But it's not nutritious as it has no micronutrients. More importantly, the energy from alcohol is in a form readily absorbable by the body and hence cannot be stored. So, when alcohol is consumed, it becomes the primary energy source for the body. Any carb you eat along with alcohol gets stored as fat until the energy from alcohol is used up. Again liver is the organ that converts excess carbs into fat. Hope you can appreciate the extra load we put on the liver when we eat and drink. That's why we get fatty liver and other liver diseases.
Some folks might say, I will only drink alcohol and not eat anything at that time. Almost all liquor contains carbs. For example, beer has 5-8% alcohol. So, the remaining 95-92% is mostly carbs. Similar story with wine and so on. Many who do not drink any alcohol are getting fatty liver because of their excess intake of carbs. When starchy foods and alcohol go together, we are overloaded with so much energy that our sedentary lifestyle can hardly use. Pancreatitis, a disease of the pancreas, is becoming common these days with the increased affordability and acceptability of this deadly combination.
How to find out if you have fatty liver? You can get an ultrasound of your abdomen or measure your waist at your navel. If your waist circumference is greater than half of your height, you are very likely to have fatty liver.
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