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CHAPTERAlcoholism
R
obert Dudley, a biologist at the University of Texas, writes that our
liking for alcohol was passed on to us from our closest relatives on
the evolutionary scale—chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans who
traveled miles through dense forest thickets in search of fermented
fruit. Dudley asserts that the purpose was to obtain “precious calories.”^1
But why go to such lengths for fuel when fresh fruit containing plenty
of sugar for the production of body energy was close at hand? I’m con-
vinced these primates sought fermented fruit for the same reason that
the Chinese ferment soybeans and the Eskimos and Hebrides Islanders
devised ways of putrefying meat and fi sh—because eating foods par-
tially broken down by bacteria increases energy, strengthens muscles,
and improves digestion. A liking, then, among our primate relatives for
the taste and euphoric effect of fermented fruit developed originally
from the health benefi ts derived from it.
Addiction to alcoholic beverages among Europeans, who for most of
their existence had been nomadic hunters and food gatherers, became
a problem after they settled down to cultivate grains. Their digestive
systems, used to handling meat protein, didn’t have the enzymes needed
to break down the protein in grains, particularly the gluten protein in
wheat, rye, and barley. Those people who developed an allergy to cer-
tain grains, by extension, became allergic to the alcoholic drinks made
from these grains. This led to an unnatural craving for alcohol.
Thus individuals today who crave alcohol prefer the alcoholic bever-
age that is made out of the grain or other food substance to which they
are allergic—corn, wheat, barley, rye, potatoes, or grapes. Eating allergy-