From SALLY CLARKE
It seems there may indeed be a way in which we can have our alcohol
without drinking it (‘Drink? If you’ve got the energy’, Forum, 22/29 December).
The ‘auto-brewery syndrome’, fermentation of carbohydrate to ethanol in
the gut after an oral glucose load, was reported last year in Journal of
Nutritional Medicine. The maximum concentration of blood alcohol the authors
had previously recorded was 19.7 milligrams per 100 millilitres, close enough
to the Swedish driving limit of 20 mg/100 ml to merit sober reflection before
dipping into the biscuit tin (digestive biscuits contain 66 grams carbohydrate
per 100 grams) or dropping into the sweet shop (a Mars bar contains 68.6
grams carbohydrate per 100 grams).
Sally Clarke Journal of Nutritional Medicine London
