[Alcohol intake and nutrition]

This article contains summaries of our studies carried out at the society of the research "alcohol and health" with discussions on some related studies. Items included: (1) Discussions on "could alcoholic beverage regard as a nutrient?". (2) Nutrients in alcoholic bevarages. Distilled alcoholic beverages contain little nutrients except energy, while brewered alcoholic beverages contains nutritionally significant amounts of magnesium, niacin, and vitamin B2. (3) Dietary habits and alcoholics. Survey studies on researchers working at a brewing industry revieled that positive correlations were observed between intakes amounts of alcoholic beverages and intakes amounts of pulses, fishes, eggs, and seasonings and spices. While, negative correlations were observed between intake amount of confectioneries, fruits and daily products, and intake amount of alcohol. As nutrients, intakes of energy and sodium increased and intakes of dietary fibers, niacin, vitamin C, carotene, and zinc decreased in proportion to increase in alcoholic intakes. (4) Effect of alcohol intake on metabolism of nutrients. To clarify the influence of alcohol intake on nutrients metabolism, our research group carried out several animal experiments. Thiamin status evaluated by blood thiamin level and erythrocyte transketolase activity a thiamin dependent enzyme, decreased significantly by excess administration of alcohol. Effect of alcohol on metabolism of zinc, a cofactor of alcohol dehydrogenase, was not significant in our experiments, although other researchers reported that zinc metabolism was influenced by alcohol intake. In addition, we found that copper concentration in liver decreased significantly in alcohol administered rats as compared to control rats. The mechanisms concerning alcohol intakes on copper metabolism remains to be clarified.