Alcohol and Health

And so what I tell people about alcohol is as far back as humans have been cultivating grain, they've also been fermenting it. Alcohol is very much part of humanity. We celebrate births, deaths, weddings, holidays with alcohol. And so I'm a big believer in being who we are.

Right.

So traditions, traditions. And I believe in that. So what I would say is, you know, if that's important to you, go for it. But be moderate and recognize again, this is the why part of it. That in no case is it the ethanol and the alcohol that's good for you, it's the other stuff that's good for you. But you know what? I totally respect the fact that it plays a role in our humanity.

Right. And I have a hard time with this because I've never been drunk in my life. My parents didn't drink and, and they were just like, you want to have a clear mind as frequently as possible. Life is hard enough with a clear mind, trying to make good decisions consistently and managing stress. When you flood your mind to be weaker and the brain to literally be weaker and the body to be weaker with alcohol, it just makes it harder to make conscious decisions.

So I'll kind of give you a little refinement. On the medical side, it is weaker, but it's actually less coordinated.

Exactly.

To make good decisions, we need really good coordination. We need to have situational awareness. Good coordination, alignment, strategy, execution, speech awareness. Speech awareness. Everything. All that kind of goes with the fog, you know, when we actually have mind altering substances.

What does alcohol do for the gut microbiome? How does it affect. Affect it positively or negatively?

You know, I would say that by and large, if you drink a lot of alcohol, it's negative. Most of the studies so far. And we're just still learning how to study the microbiome fairly neutral, you know, like if you, because you're drinking alcohol with food oftentimes. All right, like we're not talking about, you know, Lost in Las Vegas kind of stuff.

Sure.

All right. And actually some of the polyphenols that come from fermented alcohol products actually help the gut microbiome. So it's not a simple picture. Right. Different than the soda.

Different than the soda.

Yeah.

Ironically, there's no benefit, just straight sugar bomb. One of the things. But I love that you said alcohol as a doctor, that this is not something that we should, this is something we should avoid. You know, if you want to do it for traditional base or things like that, cool. But just know it's not really adding a lot of nutritional value to your life?

0.

0 nutritional value.