Riley Houston RD
- August 16, 2022
- 12:57 pm
Alcohol makes us think of drinking – good times, regrets (like those late-night texts), crying on the street, and our parents. But for chemists, it is a blanket term for countless compounds of varying functions.
Although chemists used alcohol to refer primarily to ethanol, alcohol now refers to technically refers to any organic compound (compounds with a carbon atom) with a hydroxyl group (an oxygen-hydrogen) attached.
Understanding this distinction is so important as the use and application of alcohol in our world today.
This article will discuss some of those uses and then discuss ethanol (alcohol we drink) because, let’s be honest, that’s what you came here for.
What Makes Alcohol, Alcohol?
I’ll try to make this simple, alcohol is any compound with the attached hydroxyl (alcohol) functional group. A functional group can be considered the ‘defining feature’—basically, a part of the whole. So what makes alcohol, alcohol is when hydroxyl is its leading functional group – its defining feature.
The etymology of alcohol actually had nothing to do with alcohol! In Arabic, Al- acted as a definite article (the same as English the) and kohl a powdered eyeliner – the powder came from stibnite whereby the powder was thought to be the spirit of the mineral – hence why we sometimes refer to alcohol as spirits.
As for the nomenclature, alcohols can usually be defined by the suffix -ol. Some everyday examples would be ethanol (obviously), sorbitol and xylitol (most notably known as a sweetener), menthol (your typical breath mint), and inositol (a supplement incredibly beneficial for those with PCOS).
Most known alcohols end in -ol, but even when a compound contains a hydroxyl group, other groups and structures can define it differently. For example, cholesterol (a steroid essential for our cell structures) and paracetamol (the most commonly used pain killer) end with -ol because they contain hydroxyls, but we don’t consider them alcohol.
Further, our cells (actually every organism) primary energy source – glucose – contains hydroxyl groups but aren’t considered alcohol. But because of the hydroxyl in sugars is why we can make drinking alcohol.
Ethanol – Our Favourite Alcohol
Out of the millions of alcohol compounds, ethanol is by far the most notorious – a source of happiness and relaxation as well as addiction, regret, and death. Ethanol is one of the most simple alcohols – the first is methanol (don’t drink that, you’ll probably go blind) – and is what is found in all alcoholic beverages. It is a psychoactive drug that acts as a depressant which can create a sense of euphoria at low dosages – I’m sure most of you reading this are aware of the effects of alcohol (especially at high doses).
There are a few ways ethanol is produced, but the most common method – the reason for the discovery of drinking alcohol – is the fermentation of sugars using yeast. If there is yeast and sugar, there will be alcohol. Even certain overripe fruits will have ethanol!
Ethanol is surprisingly beneficial. It’s a primary constituent of gasoline that reduces tail-pipe carbon monoxide. It is an antiseptic and disinfectant that saved countless lives from sepsis by cleaning wounds and medical equipment. Finally, a universal solvent that is cheap to produce is a reason for numerous scientific advancements. But who cares about that? You want to know about alcohol – liquor. Before that, you need to understand how drinking alcohol affects your body and how your bodies deal with ethanol.
What Does Alcohol Do To Our Body?
In all alcoholic beverages, there is ethanol of varying amounts or percentages per unit, otherwise known as proof. Although ethanol is a psychoactive drug, with countless studies on its addictive properties and deleterious effects on health, it is legal in most countries.
Most nutrients we consume are absorbed in the small intestine, except for water and alcohol, which start absorption in the stomach. Alcohol is considered a nutrient because it gives us energy, roughly 7 kcal per gram – more than carbs but less than fat. Don’t forget that anything we consume needs to be metabolised (to perform its function) and then excreted.
Alcohol is metabolised in two parts, metabolism begins in the stomach, but most of the work is done by the liver. The first part of metabolism uses an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which produces ethanal – otherwise named acetaldehyde – which is the reason for many of the effects of alcohol intoxication. Ethanal is a carcinogen (it promotes cancer cell production) and is significantly more toxic than ethanol. It’s also the culprit for hangovers.
Thankfully, our liver deals with this carcinogen by metabolising ethanal further into acetate thanks to aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which is much less toxic. It is excreted in the urine, breath and sweat (hence why breathalysers are used). Some people – typically East Asians – are born with an inactive or deformed ADH enzyme which causes an Alcohol Flush Reaction.
Because of its toxic effects, alcohol is treated as a poison. This means the liver will prioritise metabolising alcohol before anything else. The issue is that those essential nutrients (particularly fats) are on hold. They then tend to float around until the liver can deal with them, but if not, they deposit in and around the liver – common in alcoholism – which causes fatty liver, otherwise known as hepatic steatosis.
The most significant risk of ethanol consumption is its carcinogenic byproducts and how it interferes with nutrient metabolism. Alcohol is dangerous to health, especially with high consumption and chronic use. Fortunately, there are certain levels of alcohol we can consume that our bodies can handle well enough to reduce the severe effects. It’s all about moderation.
Drinking: How Much Is Too Much?
So how much alcohol is too much? The generic response is one unit (a standard drink) of alcohol for women and two for men, and those units vary depending on the beverage, i.e. 125mL for wine and 30mL for gin. However, that isn’t necessarily the truth.
These units are the amount of alcohol an average adult can metabolise in one hour. Indeed, because of genetics, age, sex, and environment variations, adults metabolise alcohol differently – hence the emphasis on the average adult.
Men can typically handle twice as much as women – this is attributed to liver enzyme function, body mass, and genetics. So let’s assume you are the average adult; then how much could you drink – how much ethanol could you metabolise in an hour?
Well, the answer to that question depends on where you live. For example, the UK define a standard drink as one that contains 8 grams of pure ethanol (about 10 mL), Spain would say it’s 10 grams (12.5 mL), and the USA suggests 14 grams (17.5mL). Further still, how much is that in drinks? General information says 125 mL of wine of 12% proof, 330mL beer of 5% proof, and 40 mL of distilled liquor of 40% ethanol. However, as we know, wine isn’t always 12% – red wine is usually 14% while white is 11%. Likewise, beer proof varies, especially with craft beers.
Further, most countries agree on one unit (≤10g ethanol) for women and two (≤20g) for men; however other guidelines recommend one to three drinks (10 g – 42 g) for women and one to four (10 g – 56 g) for men, and that’s because those amounts have shown lowered health risks associated with alcohol consumption.
Conclusion
Alcohol is the blanket term used to describe organic compounds with an -OH group. Alcohol has a massive role in our modern world, but ethanol is the most notorious alcohol around – it’s what gets us drunk.
Although ethanol is undoubtedly harmful to our health, we can still drink it safely in moderation, which is about, on average, 10 g of ethanol for women and 20 g for men, although it ultimately depends on where you are and how your body handles ethanol. Although the safest way to drink alcohol is to not drink it at all. But if you’re going to drink, do it responsibly. Don’t make pour decisions that put your health at risk.
