The New Complete Book of Food
Stimulating the appetite. Alcoholic beverages stimulate the production of saliva and the
gastric acids that cause the stomach contractions we call hunger pangs. Moderate amounts
of alcoholic beverages, which may help stimulate appetite, are often prescribed for geriatric
patients, convalescents, and people who do not have ulcers or other chronic gastric problems
that might be exacerbated by the alcohol.
Dilation of blood vessels. Alcoholic beverages dilate the tiny blood vessels just under the
skin, bringing blood up to the surface. That’s why moderate amounts of alcoholic beverages
(0.2–1 gram per kilogram of body weight, or two ounces of whiskey for a 150-pound adult)
temporarily warm the drinker. But the warm blood that flows up to the surface of the skin
will cool down there, making you even colder when it circulates back into the center of
your body. Then an alcohol flush will make you perspire, so you lose more heat. Excessive
amounts of beverage alcohol may depress the mechanism that regulates body temperature.Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Alcoholism. Alcoholism is an addiction disease, the inability to control one’s alcohol
consumption. It is a potentially life-threatening condition, with a higher risk of death by
accident, suicide, malnutrition, or acute alcohol poisoning, a toxic reaction that kills by para-
lyzing body organs, including the heart.
Fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a specific pattern of birth defects—low
birth weight, heart defects, facial malformations, learning disabilities, and mental retarda-
tion—first recognized in a study of babies born to alcoholic women who consumed more
than six drinks a day while pregnant. Subsequent research has found a consistent pattern of
milder defects in babies born to women who drink three to four drinks a day or five drinks
on any one occasion while pregnant. To date there is no evidence of a consistent pattern of
birth defects in babies born to women who consume less than one drink a day while preg-
nant, but two studies at Columbia University have suggested that as few as two drinks a
week while pregnant may raise a woman’s risk of miscarriage. (One drink is 12 ounces of
beer, five ounces of wine, or 1.25 ounces of distilled spirits.)
Increased risk of breast cancer. In 2008, scientists at the National Cancer Institute released
data from a seven-year survey of more than 100,000 postmenopausal women showing that
even moderate drinking (one to two drinks a day) may increase by 32 percent a woman’s
risk of developing estrogen-receptor positive (ER+) and progesterone-receptor positive (PR+)
breast cancer, tumors whose growth is stimulated by hormones. No such link was found
between consuming alcohol and the risk of developing ER-/PR- tumors (not fueled by hor-
mones). The finding applies to all types of alcohol: beer, wine, and distilled spirits.
Increased risk of oral cancer (cancer of the mouth and throat). Numerous studies confirm
the American Cancer Society’s warning that men and women who consume more than
two drinks a day are at higher risk of oral cancer than are nondrinkers or people who
drink less.