What is Alcohol?

Last Updated on Monday, 15 March 2010 14:29

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There are a lot of myths and legends out there about drinking and alcohol, some of which are pretty close, some are way off base.

Get your facts straight and you'll never be misinformed again.

What exactly is alcohol anyway?

Alcohol, technically speaking, is a chemical compound, formula = C2H5OH. Most of the family of alcohols are totally poisonous to the human body, but the kind we drink, called ethyl alcohol, is tolerable in small amounts.

Where does it come from?

Alcohol comes from fruit and vegetables that are fermented (left to rot) with sugar, water and yeast. Over time, this unattractive mixture produces carbon dioxide (the bubbles) and alcohol.
When it reaches critical mass (the strongest it can get) at 15% alcohol, the alcohol starts to kill off the yeast. This means that any drink with a higher percent has had extra alcohol added, usually through distillation.

What are we drinking?

Most kiwis drink beer, which has an alcohol content of around 5% (light beers have less). We also drink wine (12% alcohol), fortified wines like port or sherry (18%) and spirits like vodka, bourbon and gin (40%).

Who's drinking how much?

The Alcohol Advisory Council did a survey of young people aged 14-18 and they found that:
20% said that they didn't drink at all.
46% said that the last time they drank, they had between 1 and 4 drinks.
36% claimed to have drunk more than 5 drinks the last time they had a drink.
Interesting, huh?

How does alcohol work?

Alcohol isn't like a food. Your body knows this and treats it differently. Food gets broken down before it reaches your bloodstream; very little alcohol does. An enzyme in your stomach called alcohol dehydrogenase starts the process. So minutes after you have downed a drink, your blood is sending the alcohol to every part of your body. As it travels, the alcohol slows down the work of your body's cells, especially in the brain. You can feel this happening.
One of the places it travels to is your liver. It's the one place where your body can change the alcohol. Your liver uses enzymes to break it down into H2O (water) and CO2 (carbon dioxide). Your liver works hard but slowly, it takes one to two hours to break down one drink. So if you drink faster than your liver can cope, the alcohol hangs about and messes with your brain.