Lynn Hoffman

Although the enlightened lover of wine and beer spends a lot of mental and
emotional energy on choreographing their intake and delectation, we are
sometimes faced-on the next morning, let’s say- with questions about
disposing of the pure alcohol fraction of what we drank.Fortunately, the
same body that took all that alcohol in is capable of hauling it out, mostly
by metabolizing it in the liver.
A small amount is expelled in the breath, saliva, urine, feces
and sweat. (A small amount is also excreted in breast milk, although
if you’re producing breast milk and drinking lots of alcohol,
perhaps you should be reading some other book.) Except for
the possible acceleration caused by jumping into a sauna or running
a marathon, most of us eliminate alcohol at a steady rate.
There is some variability among people in their ability to dilute and
get rid of what they paid to take in. The big differences are the water
content and fat content of the body. Practically, this means that:
• The less you weigh, the more you will be affected by a given
amount of alcohol. Bigger people have more blood and more
tissue and so the alcohol is diluted over a larger volume.
• The more muscular you are, the less affected you’ll be. Fat
doesn’t have much water (duh), and muscular souls have more
blood vessels and more water-absorbing tissue. Watch out for
the body builders at the beer tasting.
• Gender counts. Women have a triple whammy here. They tend
to have smaller bodies with higher body fat percentages, which
means less watery tissue. They also tend to process alcohol
through the liver more slowly because of a lower level of an
alcohol-digesting hormone.
• Age matters too. Older people eliminate alcohol more slowly,
although the effects of this may be mitigated by the so-called
“practice effect.” This is part of what’s behind the common
observation that old drunks can handle their liquor better.
• Food can slow the absorption of alcohol through several mechanisms.
Not only is alcohol slowed in its entrance to the small
intestine, but the lower concentrations that result speed up the
rate of elimination.
There’s more, of course. Arousal can slow the passage of alcohol
from the stomach to the intestine and the wound-up person looking for a predetermined

level of buzz may fail to reach it with the first few doses
and then overshoot. Anxiety can increase the rate of absorption and
so can carbonation and even artificial sweeteners. So, let’s lay off
the aspartame-enhanced malt liquor when we’re really really tense,
okay?

Adapted from The Short Course in Beer by Lynn Hoffman

To learn more about The Short Course in Beer check out:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601641915