The Alcohol Lie

How AA, Big Alcohol, and our drinking culture normalize the world’s most destructive drug

Drinking alcohol is not normal. At least — your body doesn’t think it is. Alcohol is a toxin that must be neutralized or eliminated from the body.

It may be normal, even expected, to consume alcohol in our culture, but to your internal organs, it’s an intruder (with no nutritional value) that can wreak havoc.

You don’t digest alcohol the way you would “normal” food or drink.

Here is what happens once alcohol is swallowed…

• First, a small amount is absorbed directly by the tongue and mucosal lining of the mouth.
• Once in the stomach, alcohol is absorbed directly into your bloodstream through the stomach and small intestine tissue lining.
• The liver is the primary organ responsible for detoxifying alcohol. Liver cells produce the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which breaks alcohol into ketones at about 0.015 g/100mL/hour (reducing BAC by 0.015 per hour).

None of this is normal for your body.