How does the body absorb and digest low to moderate amounts of alcohol?
What will be an ideal response?
Answers will vary.
Alcohol, unlike most carbohydrate, protein, and fat molecules, requires no digestion. It also does not need specific transport mechanisms or receptors to enter cells. Therefore, it is absorbed rapidly throughout the digestive tract by simple diffusion. The stomach absorbs about 20% of ingested alcohol, with the remainder being absorbed in the duodenum and jejunum. When food is consumed with alcohol, absorption is slowed. Larger meals with a high fat content leave the stomach more slowly, thereby slowing the absorption of any alcohol consumed. In contrast, alcohol consumed on an empty stomach is absorbed quickly from the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream.
Alcohol is readily dispersed throughout the body because alcohol is found wherever water is distributed in the body. Alcohol moves easily through the cell membranes; however, as it does, it damages proteins in the membranes.
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