The light to moderate drinkers are probably in pretty good health, according to Dr. Halsted. But excessive alcohol consumption is another story. It can cause diarrhea, osteoporosis, night blindness and anemia and can knock as many as 15 years off your life span. It can also cause nutritional deficiency diseases such as scurvy and pellagra. Although rare in this country, when scurvy and pellagra do occur, it's usually in alcoholics.
Alcoholic beverages are full of empty calories.
Yet if you're a heavy drinker, those empty calories replace other nutrients in the diet. In addition, alcohol has a direct, toxic effect on the gastrointestinal tract. The result is that many, if not most, of the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients extracted from food during digestion cannot be absorbed through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. Compounding the problem is the fact that alcohol is toxic to the liver, the organ that processes nutrients. Normally the liver either stores the nutrients it receives or, after processing, sends them cascading back into your bloodstream to be used throughout your body.