p. 12 | Alcohol Not a Food

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 22, 1906

Alcohol Not a Food

Dr. N. S. Davis says when alcohol is taken into the human stomach, it is rapidly absorbed, carried directly into the blood; consequently it undergoes no digestion or assimilative change in the digestive organs, and is not converted into elements capable of contributing to the growth or repair of the organized structure of the human body. It has been many times detected as alcohol unchanged in the blood, liver, brain, lungs, kidneys, and all the other structures of the body.

Chemistry shows us that alcohol is not a tissue builder, containing none of the elements from which the tissues are made. Its use in health can not be of any value. It is true the grains from which it is made contain gluten, fibrin, etc.,—elements of great importance in the development of the human system,—but in the production of alcohol a chemic change is produced, so that there is nothing which the tissues of the body can appropriate to their use; consequently, from a physiologic standpoint, we are forced to admit that its use in health, even in small doses, is deleterious. Take, for example, a sensitive, intellectual young man. Note the deleterious changes which the habitual use of alcohol causes in him. The blood becomes impure, as evidenced by the red nose, and pimples and blotches on the face; his nervous system becomes deranged, as evidenced by his coarse language, irritable disposition, and high temper, often abusive to the mother to whom in former years he gave most reverential and respectful attention. To the wife whom he once adored and would have given his life to protect, he becomes cold, harsh, and abusive, often treating her with contempt. The children, once his pride, he neglects or often robs, and to his best friends he even becomes insulting. Will some advocate of the “social glass” explain to us the physiologic and beneficial effects of alcohol upon the brain in this case?—Australasian Union Record.