The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-07-19

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FOOD VALUE OF ALCOHOL.
An Argument to Show That 1t Has
No Right to Any Such
Claim,

Ever since Prof. w. o. Atwater, of
Wesleyan college, announced the re-
suits of his experiments to determine
the oxidizability of alcohol in the hui
man body, nearly year ago, there has
existed in the minds of the laity a belief
that this is discovery of Importance,
far-reaching and revolutionary in its
character. alcohol is a food" has
been shouted from the housetops of the
lay press; alcohol is food" has been
echoed by the brewer. the distiller and
the wine maker, and ''Alcohol is a food"
has been reeehoed by the tens of thou
sands of bibulous humanity who are
seeking for some legitimate or decent
excuse to become intoxicated with a
favorite form of alcoholic beverage.
To the medical profession there is
nothing new in the results obtained by
Prof Atwater. That alcohol is oxi-
died when taken into the body in small
quantities was demonstrated more
than half a century ago. BY reason of
the perfect apparatus used by Prof.
Atwater he has been able to show,
however, that small quantities of al
cohol are more completely oXidized
than has been heretofore thought to
be the case. The opinion that alcohol
is food rests solely upon the fact that
it is oxidized when injected; and, be-
ing oxidized, according to the we'll
known law of the conservatism of en-
ergy, must give rise to heat and mus
cular power. Let US see how much sup
port we find for this opinion.
Psychologists recognize three classes
or organic foods. The proteids, the
carbohydrates and the hydrocarbons.
To the first class belong all the al
bumen and albuminod substances, to
the second the starches. gums and
sugars. and to the third the animal and
vegetable fats and oils. The foods of
the first class contain nitrogen, and
from these alone the structure of the
body are built up after loss in sub
stance which they suffer in the ordi-
nary performance of their functions.
Alcohol, containing no nitrogen, is in
capable of furnishing new tissue. The
second class. the starches and sugars,
undergo a slow and orderly process of
combustion, and supply a fuel which
gives rise to tissue energy-muscular
nervous. glardular and the like. When
taken in excess they are converted into
fat and stored up in the cellular it's
sue. chiefly beneath the skin. and thus
furnish a reserve material for the or
ganism. to be called upon in emer-
gency. The fats are slowly oxidized.
and act chiefly as a material for the
production of heat.
Now, alcohol is regarded as carbo-
hydrate food, but its resemblance to
the starches and sugars is by no means
close. 1t cannot be changed into gly-
cogen; indeed, even in small quanti-
ties, it interferes with the glycogenic
function of the liver in a marked de-
gree. and it cannot be stored up as fat
when taken in excess of the oxidizing
powers of the body. The oXidizatio
of alcohol in the body, too. is so differ
ent from that of other carbohydrate
foods that this difference alone is suf-
ficient, in the writer's opinion, to bar
it out of the class.
Much is said, too, by writers on the
subject, about the tissue sparing quail
tiles of alcohol. that because of its easy
oxidizability when taken into the sys-
TEN it is burned up while the nitrogen
Gus tissues are spared; but there is yet
no evidence to sustain this belief. In
the work of Miura, Schmidt, Romeyn
and Stammreich the preponderance of
evidence was the other way.
But there is another consideration
which makes the 'alcohol a food" ar
gument nothing better than a reductio
ad absurdum. If there were any gem
orally accepted definition of a food
there would be no difficulty. The prop
critics of alcohol and the manner of it's
disposal within the body would be
measured by that definition and its fate
settled at once. Surely the fact alone
that it is oXidized in smnll quantity
does not entitle it to be classed as a
food of any kind. Suppose that we
should find that ether, chloroform or
any of the alkaloidal poisons are oXi-
died in the body. shall that alone be
sufficient to entitle them to the name
of food? Shall we say, for instance
that ether is a food when taken in
gram doses and a poison when taken in
two-gram doses? The absurdity of this
position is apparent. If alcohol be en-
titled to the name of a carbohydrate
food let us substitute it in the daily
dietary of an adult for the normal car
bohydrate food, or rather let us consid-
er what the consequences would be if it
were so substituted. Suppose that the
500 grams, more or less, of carbohy-
drate food in the form OF starches and
sugars which has been found necessary
for the well being of the average adult
should be displaced by an equalquan-
tity of alcohol. This quantity would
approximate a quart of whisky daily,
and lead TO pretty prompt extinction
of the human race. If you say that no
one claims that alcohol is a food in
this large quantity and that it is only
a food to the extent that it is oXidiZed
and does no harm, | again answer so
are ether and chloroform, and the al
kaloids, and | shall persist in saying
that these poisons are foods "to a GER