Beer : Health and Nutrition

The Impact of Alcohol on Health 149
differentiation-inducing action of vitamin D. Other myelomonocytic leukaemia cells
were induced to differentiate by vitamin D and this was also enhanced by humulone.
It seems that a combination of humulone and vitamin D might be useful in therapy for
myelomonocytic leukaemia.
Cancer
The World Health Organization takes the stance that alcoholic beverages are carcinogenic
to humans. However researchers from the University of Louisville in 1993 (cited
by Stuttaford 1997) doubted that there was evidence to support the contention of a
relationship between alcohol and cancers.
The WHO statement needs to be analysed carefully, as it may have been in uenced
by international politics and religious belief. The Journal of Cancer Education
commenting on the statement, said ‘the scienti c literature extant in 1992 provides
only weak support for that nding’. Yet despite its critical reception by detached
authorities, the WHO opinion is frequently quoted by opponents of alcohol.
[…]
Of the 441 articles published by 1992 in the medical press about the links
between drinking and cancer, only 29 were judged to meet the requirements of
even an acceptable meta-analysis. There is … nothing in the literature about
alcohol and cancer that comes near to paralleling the research ndings that linked
cigarette smoking with cancer.
Stuttaford (1997)
The 1989 report of the Committee on Diet and Health of the National Academy of
Sciences concluded that one-third of cancers are linked to diet and that the strongest
causal links were between stomach and colon cancer and diets high in fats and low in
fresh fruits and vegetables. This led to the recommendation that no more than 30% of
dietary calories should be in the form of fat. The recommendation is also to avoid excessive
consumption of cured and smoked foods, but to ensure an intake of fresh vegetables
and fruit. They also caution against excessive consumption of alcohol.
It is well understood that a signi cant factor in bodily tissue damage is exerted
through the action of free radicals. At higher concentrations ethanol is metabolised
not by the alcohol dehydrogenase system but by the cytochrome P450 system and this
leads to signi cant radical formation (Lieber 1994; Nordmann 1994). Alcohol is also
claimed to decrease the production of, and increase loss of, glutathione from the liver
and to decrease the levels of other antioxidants, vitamin E and vitamin C (Speisky et
al. 1985). The overall impact is a reduced resistance to oxidation.