Effects of Alcohol in Digestion

Alcohol abuse has a lot of negative effects in our bodies and one of these is problem with the digestive system. In order to understand this, let us first get an overview of how our digestive process works.

Our digestive system processes everything we eat beginning from the breaking up of the food in the mouth by means of the jaws and teeth. The saliva, a viscid liquor, is poured into the mouth from the salivary glands, and as it mixes with the food, it performs a very important part in the operation of digestion, rendering the starch of the food soluble, and gradually changing it into a sort of sugar, after which the other principles become more miscible with it. Nearly a pint of saliva is furnished every twenty-four hours for the use of an adult. When the food has been masticated and mixed with the saliva, it is then passed into the stomach, where it is acted upon by a juice secreted by the filaments of that organ, and poured into the stomach in large quantities whenever food comes in contact with its mucous coats.

Many believe that wine or beer or any liquor for that matter aids in digestion. Studies show that when alcohol is mixed with the digestive fluid, it produces a white precipitate, so that the fluid is no longer capable of digesting food. It was also said that alcohol interferes with the natural content of the gastric juice, the pepsine, rendering it much less efficacious. This should well teach us that alcohol has negative effects in digestion, thus, too much consumption should be avoided at all times.


For articles about signs of alcoholism, please visit: alcoholism.tipsntricks.org