365 Ways #336–Score one for the teetotalers

#336--My grandfather used to say that if you drink alcohol before you're forty, you're crazy. And he also said that if you don't drink any alcohol after you're forty, you're even crazier. Well, the truth is there are no health benefits to alcohol. Alcohol is a simple sugar yet quickly causes hypoglycemia. In fact, it's one of the few substances that does not have to reach the small intestine before it's absorbed into your bloodstream. Absorption begins as soon as it hits the tissues of the mouth--one of the reasons medicines often have a degree of alcohol content. And while delivery time may be important when it comes to medicine, a quick and dramatic decrease in blood sugar levels is coupled with adverse hormonal consequences which negatively impact the entire physiology of the body.

What about the experiments demonstrating that imbibing once in a while can benefit your heart (you ask defensively while imbibing for the second or third time today)? To answer your question, I have a question--When's the last time you had a drink? Were you rushing out of the house, late for work, fighting rush hour traffic to make a deadline? Or were you sitting with friends or family, enjoying a meal, and reminiscing? Perhaps the supposed benefits attributed to alcohol come more from the environment in which it is consumed rather than the consumption itself.