Does Alcohol Help Digestion?

[satchboogie]

a few times a week, ill have beer with my 8oz steak fillet...
does alcohol at all help with digestion?

if no, does it help at all in anything???

 

[sublime35]

no actually it does just the opposite. Alchohol hinders absorption of nutrients, so if anything it's hurting you. Personally I would cut it down to an occasional thing, just because it has no nutrional value and alcohol can actually increase estrogen.

here's something from an article on it.
"Alcohol inhibits the breakdown of nutrients into usable molecules by decreasing secretion of digestive enzymes from the pancreas (2). Alcohol impairs nutrient absorption by damaging the cells lining the stomach and intestines and disabling transport of some nutrients into the blood (3). In addition, nutritional deficiencies themselves may lead to further absorption problems. For example, folate deficiency alters the cells lining the small intestine, which in turn impairs absorption of water and nutrients including glucose, sodium, and additional folate (3). "

here's the whole article. http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/alerts/l/blnaa22.htm