" Superficial observers, however, have upheld the use of alcohol
as a food, saying, "See how fleshy it makes people." Well, healthy fat
is not always an advantage, but beer drinkers' fat is not the genuine
article. Healthy fat represents a stock of body warming food laid up
for a time of need and is formed only in health. The "fat" usually exhibited
by beer drinkers is not a fat at all; oil is not its chief factor. It
consists of particles of partly digested flesh forming food which the
system required, but which it was unable to assimilate owing to the presence
in the body of the alcohol which the beer contained. This sort of fat
instead of indicating health points to disease. This general teaching as
to the worthlessness of alcohol as a food had been set forth by the leaders
in medical profession, and accepted largely by the rank and file of
practitioners for about twenty-five years. An occasional cry came from
the other side, however, and late in 1899 Dr. W. O. Atwater, professor
in Wesleyan University, announced that he had, by an extended series
of experiments, proved the truth of the claims of those experimentors
who believed alcohol to have value as a food. Dr. Atwater's reports were
widely published by the whiskey press, and a state of some unrest
amongst thinking physicians followed, which had not been wholly quieted
when this committee began work.
IS IT A MEDICINE?
At the time we began work, however, it had been demonstrated that
alcohol is not a medicine.
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