Medicine: Liquor & Work

Liquor & Work Drinkers have often comforted themselves with the thought that they get energy out of the alcohol they consume. Doctors, who like physiological proof, have not been so sure. After half a century of tests and arguments, there are still many who contend that the energy from alcohol is dissipated as heat and cannot be used for muscular work.

Last week in the New York State Journal of Medicine the drinkers were given the decision over the doubting doctors by Louise J. Daniel, Cornell biochemist. From the latest nutritional and biochemical studies, Dr. Daniel concluded that alcohol is nutritious—in its way. Her reasoning: although alcohol is not digested, most of it is oxidized first to acetaldehyde and then to acetate. As acetate it can be oxidized in all the body's tissues, can be drawn upon for muscular work.

About 70% of the potential energy of alcohol can be used this way, Dr. Daniel suggests. "This would mean that five calories are liberated by the oxidation of one gram of pure ethyl alcohol in the body." But the findings were intended as no special endorsement of cocktails. There is more nutrition in a 5¢ candy bar than in a 50¢ Martini.