DRINKER'S BEST DEFENCE: FOOD

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32957, 1 July 1972, Page 8

DRINKER'S BEST DEFENCE: FOOD

(By ARTHUR SNIDER, of the “Chicago Daily Neu" through N.Z.PA. CHICAGO. The belief that a person can handle alcohol easier after years of use is a fallacy, says a leading scientist.

I How much alcohol a person . J can drink varied from indi-. i vidual to individual, and even : ' in the same individual at different times, said Dr Leonj Greenberg, the director of j research at the Rutgers I Centre of Alcohol Studies, i It also depended on the! | amount of food in the; I stomach, he told a seminar | sponsored by the North-; Western University. “The individual’s temperament plays a large part in his behaviour. A few drinks may make a phlegmatic individual normal, a normal person the life of the party, and | a vivacious person a ; nuisance,” said Dr Greenberg. SUGGESTION’S PART Intoxication also was influenced by suggestion, the scientist said_A person who

.thought he would get drunk i quickly usually found that Ihe did. The best guard against ! intoxication, he said, was a full stomach, because it (retards the passage of (alcohol from the stomach 'into the small intestines and i delayed its entrance into th i bloodstream. j Dr Greenberg said that I fatty foods, such as olive toil, were supposed to be good (protection against intoxic;.ition, but actually some pr< teins were better. A few glasses of milk provided effective fortification. Some beverages, notably beer, contained food substances which in themselve' slowed absorption, he said. On the other hand, carbondioxide quickened the passage of food to the stomach This explained the common observation that champagne and other effervescent wines “go to one’s head." he said.