366 THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS FOOD 



that it may be preserved, but that it may be broken down 

 by the ferments of the body. A strong drinker suffers 

 from stomach indigestion largely because his food has 

 been hardened and made unfit for the body. Besides 

 injuring the food, alcohol paralyzes the stomach muscles, 

 so that they cannot mix the food thoroughly with the 

 gastric juice. 



We learn that the using up of proteids at the cells pro- 

 duces body wastes (cf. 366 and 380). One of the most 

 important of these, and very injurious if retained in the 

 body, is uric acid. The cells pass uric acid over to the 

 lymph, and the lymph hands it over to the blood. The 

 blood carries it to the liver. Now, in health, the liver 

 changes a large part of the uric acid to urea, a soluble 

 solid that is removed from the body by the kidneys. But 

 alcohol, even the small amount in a glass of beer or wine, 

 may so upset the liver that the breaking up of uric acid 

 into urea is prevented, and the waste material is retained, 

 greatly to the injury of the body. 



Those who defend the using of alcohol often tell us that 

 it is a food. It is true that a small amount of it can be 

 oxidized at the cells, and that this oxidation gives some 

 energy; but it is also true that the cells are greatly injured 

 by it, and that for this reason it cannot properly be called 

 a food, but must be called a poison. The only reason for 

 which drinkers insist on calling alcohol a food is that they 

 want an excuse for satisfying the alcohol appetite. Alco- 

 hol undergoes no process of digestion. It passes at once 

 from the stomach into the blood and the lymph, and to 

 the cells. But there is too much alcohol for the cells 

 even in the amount taken by a moderate drinker. Now, 



