Don't drink too much of the delicious wine

"No wine, no fun." Alcoholic beverages are mood stimulants at dinner parties or banquets, and can quickly create a happy atmosphere. However, the health and safety risks brought by alcoholic beverages are becoming more and more alarming, so everyone must be careful before drinking - consider the current situation and do what they can.

The alcohol (ethanol) content in alcoholic beverages is called "alcohol content". The alcohol content we often refer to in our daily lives is the standard alcohol content, which is the volume ratio of ethanol in alcoholic beverages at 20°C. For example, if 100ml of alcoholic beverage contains 35ml of ethanol, it can be expressed as "35%vol" or "35%v/v". The Chinese Dietary Guidelines recommend that the maximum daily ethanol intake for adults should not exceed 15g, and any form of ethanol is not beneficial to human health. How much is 15g of ethanol converted into common alcoholic beverages? Our approximate estimates are as follows:

Ethanol is one of the sources of energy for the human body. After being ingested by the human body, 1g of ethanol can produce 7kcal of energy, second only to fat (1g of fat can produce 9kcal of energy). Therefore, for people who drink a lot, ethanol is an important source of energy in the body. The thermogenic effect of ethanol (also known as the special power effect of food) is about 15%-25%, which is much higher than the thermogenic effect of mixed meals (about 10%-12%). This is also the reason why drinkers often sweat profusely and drink to keep warm in cold areas.

After the human body ingests ethanol, it can be quickly absorbed in the stomach and jejunum. Except for a small part of ethanol that can be metabolized in the gastric mucosa, most of it needs to be metabolized in the liver. When people drink lightly to moderately, ethanol is mainly metabolized through the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) pathway; when the ethanol intake level is high, it is mainly metabolized through the microsomal ethanol oxidase system (MEOS) pathway. The oxidation of ethanol through these two metabolic pathways produces acetaldehyde, which is further metabolized into acetic acid by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), and acetic acid is transported to peripheral tissues as an energy source. The activity of ethanol metabolizing enzymes ADH and ALDH varies greatly in different people. For example, many Asian people will have typical blushing and headaches even if they drink a small amount of alcohol, which may be because of the low activity of ALDH in their bodies; in addition, some people have pale faces after drinking, which may be because of the low activity of ADH and ALDH in their bodies. Ethanol metabolism leads to changes in the liver's redox state, which can affect the body's energy and material metabolism, such as increased conversion of pyruvate to lactate, decreased gluconeogenesis and hypoglycemia, increased fatty acid synthesis, decreased protein synthesis, and decreased uric acid excretion, which can induce hyperuricemia or gout attacks. Although people's ability to metabolize ethanol varies greatly, the average metabolic rate of ethanol for healthy people is about 5-7g/h. Although there is currently no recognized safe and effective method to increase the rate of ethanol degradation, high fructose intake can affect the state of certain key enzymes, so some people drink honey water to sober up.

Although it is difficult to give an accurate quantitative description of alcoholism, we can refer to drinking conditions that are less severe than alcoholism. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines "heavy drinking" as an average of more than 15 standard drinks per week or more than 5 standard drinks per day for men, and more than 8 standard drinks per week or more than 4 standard drinks per day for women. The so-called "heavy drinking" causes the blood ethanol concentration to reach 0.08g/dL (0.08%) or even higher. Usually, women drink no less than 4 standard drinks or men drink no less than 5 standard drinks within 2 hours to reach this blood concentration. Here, 1 standard drink is defined as a drink containing 14 grams of ethanol. Referring to the average rate of healthy metabolism of ethanol, even drinking 4 cups a day requires special processing by the liver for 8-10 hours.

Finally, let's take a look at the damage changes that occur in the human body as the blood alcohol concentration increases:

So remember - good wine is delicious, but don't drink too much!