The Great Beer Mystery

After a week's worth of hard work, you finally gather yourself and a couple of friends and head out for a night on the town. You go to a pub, and order beer. As you guzzle that cold, delicious golden beer, you feel all that stress slipping away. You don't have any qualms about having that beer because you feel that you have earned it. Yeah, you have worked your ass off for the entire week, and you deserve to enjoy a night on the town with your buddies. And it feels so good after.

Well, this is what happens to your body as that beer passes through : *

1. You take a swig of beer.

2. Within seconds, the beverage passes through your oesophagus and into your stomach.

3. Twenty percent of the alcohol is absorbed from your stomach into you bloodstream; the rest is absorbed from your intestines.

4. The alcohol travels through your blood to your liver, where it's broken down. During this process, waste products called acetate and acetaldehyde are created.

5. Acetate and acetaldehyde signal you body to stop burning fat. At the same time, your body starts making fat from another waste product of alcohol, acetyl CoA.

6. Your body can effectively process only about 15ml to 30ml of alcohol per hour.

So the more you drink, the longer your body is inhibited from burning fat, and the more fat builds up from the excess acetyl CoA.
(A 340ml beer contains about 17ml of alcohol.)

Cheers to you !!!

yours truly,
Ar'Nath
*Original Article from Men's Health Magazine (Indian Edition) May 2007