--- Adrienne Smith <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm curious about this as well since I never seem to
> get the signal to stop
> at 2 drinks although vodka (I know, not paleo but
> gets to the point quicker) is
> my drink of choice.

I was wondering about that too. I can definitely say,
at least from my own personal experience, that there
is no "signal." I usually stop at a couple of drinks,
but it's just willpower rather than any signal. I know
that if I drink too much I'll feel bad the next day,
and I have to remind myself of this. Sometimes when
the next day is a weekend, for example, I end up
saying, "what the heck," though, and do consume a bit
too much.

East Asian who have an enzyme defect do actually stop
because they feel bad, so there is some kind of a
signal there. Somebody mentioned hangovers earlier,
and as somebody else stated, dehydration is part of
it, but another part is that alcohol gets coverted to
acetaldehyde and then to acetic acid (vinegar). The
alcohol makes you feel good, but actually the
acetaldehyde makes you feel like hell, and that is
part of the reason the next day can be rough. The East
Asians don't lack the enzymes to convert the alcohol
to acetaldehyde, but they have less of the enzyme that
converts the acetaldehyde to vinegar, so they end up
with a lot of acetaldehyde in their blood, and so sort
of get a nasty hangover beginning from when they start
drinking. Naturally, this is unpleasant and makes you
want to discontinue.

Jens

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