# Could you live longer on booze and water than on just water? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 23, 2006, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565 "2006-03-23T07:28:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/21 "2006-03-23T14:54:19Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > Alcohol is poisonous to us, our bodies are trying to dump it and its byproducts by excreting it via urine. Thirst is a natural response to many poisons. Sorry, part of my post disappeared. It was in response to this quote. **Priceguy** , alcohol is a carbohydrate, but all carbohydrates are not the same. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/22 "2006-03-23T15:00:16Z")
> [@August West](#): > > **Priceguy** , alcohol is a carbohydrate, but all carbohydrates are not the same. So “Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram” is strictly speaking a lie? Is it just a particular carbohydrate that’s common in food? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/23 "2006-03-23T15:02:45Z")
> [@Brain Wreck](#): > > Ethanol is C2H5OH, so if carbohydrates are compounds that consist only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, then ethanol is a carbohydrate. It seems I might be wrong about this… apparently a carbohydrate is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, but also in a 1:2:1 ratio. So strictly speaking, alcohol might not be a carbohydrate. However, it most certainly does provide dietary calories. It also causes the body to convert glycogen to glucose, which is like providing a shot of sugar (although a starving person will not have any problem doing this without the benefit of alcohol). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/24 "2006-03-23T15:04:45Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > So “Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram” is strictly speaking a lie? Is it just a particular carbohydrate that’s common in food? Ethanol (and a few other alcohols) are special cases of carbohydrates. The body handles them differently, in ways that we still don’t fully understand. End result is that ethanol can be metabolized for energy, but the body can’t _build_ much of anything out of it. So an ethanol and water diet would sustain life longer than a water diet, but one would still die from malnutrition eventually. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/25 "2006-03-23T15:07:24Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > So “Carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram” is strictly speaking a lie? Is it just a particular carbohydrate that’s common in food? I wouldn’t say a lie, just maybe overgeneralized. I don’t know where that figure comes from but most likely it’s from the most common dietary carbohydrates which are simple sugars and starches. If you are counting your calories then it is probably just fine to assume 4 calories per gram for dietary carbs. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/26 "2006-03-23T15:15:57Z")
> [@Brain Wreck](#): > > A pint of whiskey provides about half the energy you need for the day So kids, remember: **two** pints of whiskey each day for all the energy you need! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/27 "2006-03-23T15:19:56Z")
Apparently they did some sort of study and figuered out that if you had just a small additional glass of OJ (vit C) and one of whole milk (fat & calcium), you could live quite happily on Guiness for quite some time. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/28 "2006-03-23T15:50:19Z")
Re: food value of alcohol: i’ve noticed that alcoholics eat very little-they seem to lose their apetite for food. Could it be that the alcohol and sugars presnt in the booze provide enough to live on? Although i suspect that a real heavy drinker has a pretty short lifespan. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/29 "2006-03-23T15:51:08Z")
Interesting article [Why alcohol calories are more important than you think…](http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/research/alcohol.htm) Portion of article > [@](#): > > According to conventional wisdom, the infamous “beer belly” is caused by excess alcohol calories being stored as fat. Yet, less than five percent of the alcohol calories you drink are turned into fat. Rather, the main effect of alcohol is to reduce the amount of fat your body burns for energy. > > Some evidence for this comes from research carried in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition [4]. Eight men were given two drinks of vodka and sugar-free lemonade separated by 30 minutes. Each drink contained just under 90 calories. Fat metabolism was measured before and after consumption of the drink. For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by a massive 73%. > Rather than getting stored as fat, the main fate of alcohol is conversion into a substance called acetate. In fact, blood levels of acetate after drinking the vodka were 2.5 times higher than normal. And it appears this sharp rise in acetate puts the brakes on fat loss. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/30 "2006-03-23T18:07:32Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > How long could an average healthy person live on nothing but alcohol and water? Well, Oliver Reed made it to 61… ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/31 "2006-03-23T19:21:13Z")
[Interesting stuff in Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol) > [@](#): > > In the human body, ethanol is first oxidized to acetaldehyde, and then to acetic acid. The first step is catalysed by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, and the second by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Some individuals have less effective forms of one or both of these enzymes, and can experience more severe symptoms from ethanol consumption than others. Conversely, those who have acquired ethanol tolerance have a greater quantity of these enzymes, and metabolize ethanol more rapidly. > … > The initial product of ethanol metabolism, acetaldehyde, is more toxic than ethanol itself. The body can quickly detoxify some acetaldehyde by reaction with glutathione and similar thiol-containing biomolecules. When acetaldehyde is produced beyond the capacity of the body’s glutathione supply to detoxify it, it accumulates in the bloodstream until further oxidized to acetic acid. The headache, nausea, and malaise associated with an alcohol hangover stem from a combination of dehydration and acetaldehyde poisoning; many health conditions associated with chronic ethanol abuse, including liver cirrhosis, alcoholism, and some forms of cancer, have been linked to acetaldehyde.[citation needed] Some medications, including paracetamol (acetaminophen), as well as exposure to organochlorides, can deplete the body’s glutathione supply, enhancing both the acute and long-term risks of even moderate ethanol consumption. This factoid was especially interesting > [@](#): > > Several unusual phenomena are associated with mixtures of ethanol and water. Ethanol-water mixtures have less volume than their individual components: a mixture of equal volumes ethanol and water has only 96% of the volume of equal parts ethanol and water, unmixed. The addition of even a few percent ethanol to water sharply reduces the surface tension of water. This property partially explains the tears of wine phenomenon: when wine is swirled inside a glass, ethanol evaporates quickly from the thin film of wine on the wall of the glass. As its ethanol content decreases, its surface tension increases, and the thin film beads up and runs down the glass in channels rather than as a smooth sheet. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/32 "2006-03-23T19:59:54Z")
If the alcohol was Orange Schnapps, you wouldn’t have the pesky scurvy problem either! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/33 "2006-03-23T20:07:10Z")
Wouldn’t it also depend on the type of alcohol? Don’t beer and wine have some vitamins, as opposed to hard liquor? Hard liquor has more calories pure volume, so you can take in more beer and/or wine with fewer calories. I once got an interesting e-mail from the notmilkman, stating that a person who drinks a quart of vodka a day would be in better shape than the person who drinks a quarter of milk a day (except for the alcohol). ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/34 "2006-03-23T20:30:08Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Wouldn’t it also depend on the type of alcohol? Don’t beer and wine have some vitamins, as opposed to hard liquor? > > Hard liquor has more calories pure volume, so you can take in more beer and/or wine with fewer calories. > > I once got an interesting e-mail from the notmilkman, stating that a person who drinks a quart of vodka a day would be in better shape than the person who drinks a quarter of milk a day (except for the alcohol). Your friends hypothesis sounds insane on the face of it as processing Vodka is mostly “empty” food calories, stresses the body to process it, and produces few if any useful nutrients. A quart of milk is far more nutritious. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/35 "2006-03-23T21:19:53Z")
Well this question has been answered. I just want to clear up some stuff and whatnot. The answer is obviously yes. Alcohol can be used as energy. In the human body, ethanol is modified like this: ethanol -\> acetaldyhyd -\> acetat -\> acetyl CoA Acetyl CoA can then enter the citric acid cycle, which gives us energy. Also, just to make it clear, alcohol is NOT a carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are compounds with the formula Cn(H2O)n. And it’s correct to say that carbohydrates contain 4 calories and alcohol 7. As for how long you could live: Cecil answered a similar question: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_209.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_209.html) He says that it’s maybe possible to live up to two years on a diet of white bread and water, before you die of scurvy. I’m not sure if alcohol is much worse in terms of keeping you alive. Even if the alcohol cuts some months of your life, Id still choose that option over the bread. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/36 "2006-03-23T23:25:00Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I once got an interesting e-mail from the notmilkman, stating that a person who drinks a quart of vodka a day would be in better shape than the person who drinks a quarter of milk a day (except for the alcohol). Except for the alcohol? So, what, the other ingredients in vodka besides alcohol (i.e. water) aren’t harmful to the body? There’s a revelation . . . ---
**Author:** ![BoringDad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ad7895/32.png) [@BoringDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoringDad)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/37 "2006-03-24T03:22:50Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Wouldn’t it also depend on the type of alcohol? Don’t beer and wine have some vitamins, as opposed to hard liquor? Yes, beer has B vitamins, folic acid, some minerals, some carbohydrates, and protein. How much and exactly what type of each of these depends greatly on the style of beer. Mass produced, filtered american beers have much less of all, rich meaty Belgian ales are brimming with them! ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/38 "2006-03-24T08:00:54Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Wouldn’t it also depend on the type of alcohol? Don’t beer and wine have some vitamins, as opposed to hard liquor? Yes. That’s why I specifically excluded those. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/39 "2006-03-24T08:02:03Z")
So **mr. jp** says alcohol isn’t a carbohydrate and **Qadgop** says that it is. You guys fight it out and tell us the result, will you? ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2006, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565/40 "2006-03-24T08:21:40Z")
> [@Priceguy](#): > > So **mr. jp** says alcohol isn’t a carbohydrate and **Qadgop** says that it is. You guys fight it out and tell us the result, will you? It’s not technically a carbohydrate. It will sustain you longer than no calories whatsoever. It’s basically the same thing, desert island-wise, as unlimited cane sugar. It breaks down into energy, and nothing else. You’ll live longer than the only-water guy, simply because you receive calories. A few months in, after that dude is dead, you’ll get scurvy and die. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-longer-on-booze-and-water-than-on-just-water/349565.md?page=3)