Nutritional Approach to Problem Drinking Implicates Hypoglycemia in Alcoholism – New Dietary Programs Cure Rate Is High Compared to Standard Treatment

Isn’t it strange how little we hear about using vitamins and nutrition in the treatment of alcoholics? You don’t have to be around heavy imbibers very long to see that they don’t eat very well. The fact is that the most successful means of detoxifying and curing alcoholism has been by nutrition. Unfortunately, little publicity has focused on the role of food and one’s diet in the development of this disease. On the other hand, Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) has had much press support, so that even though nutrition has the best cure ratio, A.A. has stopped the greatest number from drinking.

It must be kept in mind that A.A. confronts the sociological issue involved, but does not face the key biological causative problems. There is no question about its tremendous success and worthwhileness, but their program has a serious fault in it that keeps alive in the alcoholic one of the main metabolic reasons involved in the habit. A.A. succeeds in stopping the alcoholic’s consumption of alcohol but his disease remains uncured.

What I am concerned about is A.A.’s substitution of coffee, tea, candy, sweets and soft drinks for booze. While these may seem lesser evils, they continue to foment the medical problem that is so much a part of alcoholism, low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Dr. George Watson had this to say in his book Nutrition and the Mind:

First, alcohol increases the blood-sugar level by causing the liver to give up part of its stored sugar (glycogen); hence alcohol stimulates carbohydrate metabolism. Second, alcohol itself is directly broken down–principally in the liver–to produce the energy-rich intermediate acetate (acetyl coenzyme A), which is either oxidized in the citric acid cycle to produce ATP (energy) or converted to other substances such as body fat and cholesterol.

Alcohol is a rich source of acetate, ounce for ounce producing more than sugar or protein, but not quite as much as fat. In addition, however–and this point has an important bearing on its use and abuse–alcohol may be thought of as almost “instant acetate.”

Unfortunately, acetate and its important energy-producing compounds should be supplied to our tissues by wholesome foods. It is interesting that craving for alcohol and sweets increases greatly the poorer the diet is in minerals and other food essentials. An interesting animal study by Loma Linda University confirms this point. Laboratory rats on a good healthy diet received a tumbler of water and a tumbler of alcohol in their cages. On the normal diet that produced healthy rats, they refused the alcohol and drank only the water. However, the same rats, when placed on a poor diet, changed completely and hardly touched the water but consumed the alcohol with a passion. Dr. Roger Williams, discoverer of pantothenic acid, has said: “Give me a well-fed man and you cannot make a drunk out of him.”

However, three major reasons for nutritional program failures were reported in Alcohol and Alcoholism by Dr. Brown, and these partly account for the slow acceptance of diet procedures.

1. The person using alcohol frequently develops a poor dietary intake as he/she replaces better nutrient­ quality foods with alcohol..
2. Changes take place in the intestinal wall due to alcohol consumption, and this results in malabsorption of nutrients.
3. Alcohol is a high-calorie food, but is devoid of vitamins and minerals. Not only are these nutrients not present, but the use of alcohol increases their need. The water-soluble vitamins C, B1, B2, B6, B12, folic acid, pantothenic acid, biotin, choline, inositol, carnitine and bioflavonoids are particularly deficient..

The successful nutritional approach in treating alcoholism calls for the hypoglycemia diet, high-protein, moderate fat, and low-carbohydrate foods. This means that caffeine products, coffee, tea, chocolate, soft drinks, medications with caffeine and refined cereals and grains, along with sweets, must be dropped, and the number of calories that were present in these foods and beverages must be resupplied by meat, fish, eggs, vegetables of all kinds, at least two raw salads a day, and unroasted nuts and seeds. Because most alcoholics have impaired digestion, digestive enzymes must be supplied to help utilize the diet. Five or six meals a day are often needed to overcome the low blood sugar tendency. Supplements of vitamins and minerals are needed to bolster the poor nutritional status and to combat the common deficiency symptoms of nervousness, jitters, and tension. The excretion of magnesium involved in these conditions is increased fivefold because of alcohol, and it is but one of the nutrients so in need of replacement.

The V.A. Medical Center in Texas reported the results of a nutritional regime used in treating 105 male alcoholics. At the time of discharge, there were no differences in the two groups as to anxiety, depression or health. After six months, however, the results were startling. Of the conventionally treated group, 37.8 percent were still off alcohol, but 62.8 percent were back to uncontrolled drinking. Of the group that had diet modification, vitamin and mineral supplements, and nutritional instruction, 81.3 percent remained sober, while 18.8 percent had resumed drinking.

There is lots of encouraging additional scientific evidence in the medical literature. What is needed are alcoholic rehabilitation centers that make nutrition a major part of treatment if true cure of this illness is to be achieved.