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Alcohol And Nutrition

Health Articles | Health Products | Nutrition and Diet | Alcohol and Nutrition

Alcohol And Nutrients by Jane Thurnell-Read

I've already written about the effect of coffee and tea on mineral absorption, and now I want to look at alcohol.

As well as all the other problems, alcohol affects the body's ability to absorb most of the B vitamins and zinc. (Have a look at my article on pumpkin seeds for more on zinc.)

It's ironic that the B vitamins play a role in counteracting stress, and that many people use alcohol, which interferes with B vitamin absorption, to counter stress. They little realise that while it may work in the short run, in the long run it is definitely counter-productive, because among other things it undermines some of the nutrients necessary to combat stress.

While I'm writing about alcohol, it's a problem for other reasons too.

Alcohol encourages the absorption of lead. Excessive alcohol consumption has been linked to an increased risk of cancers of the mouth, throat and liver. It probably also increases the risk of breast and some forms of bowel cancer.

Alcohol can also have devastating social and psychological consequences.

Unfortunately there is now a lot of publicity about the benefits of red wine, etc. This may be true, for red wine has got excellent antioxidant properties, but these antioxidants can be got from other sources than wine.

Many people who drink to excess sadly use this sort of information as justification for their unreasonable alcohol consumption. Please remember that, as in so many things, moderation is the key.