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New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

ethz.ch

21–30 of 263 posts

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#21

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

Take this gel at the end of the night so that you don't have a hangover the next day?

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's many occasions where I don't want to drink, but not doing so can make things uncomfortable. It's unfortunate, but there's lots of occasions where abstaining can make other people uncomfortable, or cause them to give you a hard time, or any number of other things. I would love to be able to take something that allows me drink but with none of the side effects, just to avoid potential uncomfortable situations.…

If people are uncomfortable with you not drinking, that's very much on them

Agreed. And ideally that shouldn't matter. But in the real world there are other consequences and side effects. Maybe I don't want to make them uncomfortable. Maybe I just don't want to deal with the nagging, "busting my chops", or the questions about why I'm not drinking. Maybe I want to avoid some preconceived notions certain people may have about people who don't drink. So even if it's on them, there are still personal reasons I may want to avoid the situation.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#23

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

There's many occasions where I don't want to drink, but not doing so can make things uncomfortable. It's unfortunate, but there's lots of occasions where abstaining can make other people uncomfortable, or cause them to give you a hard time, or any number of other things. I would love to be able to take something that allows me drink but with none of the side effects, just to avoid potential uncomfortable situations.…

Stop giving in to peer pressure. You'll be happier.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-alcoholic beer sales are close to $40B/year globally and going up. Generally speaking, the flavor of non-alcoholic beer pales in comparison to the real thing. Then there's also the market for wine and spirits.

> Generally speaking, the flavor of non-alcoholic beer pales in comparison to the real thing. Ehhh... that's a bit of an overstatement, though I mostly agree. I just happened to be doing a crapload of bar hopping this last month and got into trying different non-alcoholic beers because they're way more prevalent than they used to be. They're certainly a lot better than the nonalcoholic beers of yore. And it's also ob…

There's this Danish startup that claims they can put the missing flavour back into the beer using their enzymes:

https://evodiabio.com/yops/ https://science.ku.dk/english/press/news/2022/researchers-ma...

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#25

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

There's many occasions where I don't want to drink, but not doing so can make things uncomfortable. It's unfortunate, but there's lots of occasions where abstaining can make other people uncomfortable, or cause them to give you a hard time, or any number of other things. I would love to be able to take something that allows me drink but with none of the side effects, just to avoid potential uncomfortable situations.…

Club soda with lime. No one knows there's not vodka in it but you.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#26

> In the future, people who take the gel could reduce the harmful and intoxicating effects of alcohol. I understand harm reduction but what is the point of reducing the intoxicating effects of alcohol? What's the point?

Alcohol is a solvent for many flavours. That's why you have a lot of it in perfumes, and that's why alcohol-free drinks don't taste as good as the originals. In Europe, we drink a lot of alcohol with food exactly for that reason (wine dissolves the fats of the sauce or just the meat and mixes and enhances the taste).

I'd really like to enjoy it without any drunkenness afterwards nor any effect on my health.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-alcoholic beer sales are close to $40B/year globally and going up. Generally speaking, the flavor of non-alcoholic beer pales in comparison to the real thing. Then there's also the market for wine and spirits.

There are some new, very good, NA beers on the market these days. Untitled Art and Athletic are two brands that are doing great work.

Yes, those are great for NA beers (De Halve Maan's Brugse Sportzot is better). Unfortunately, they're mediocre among normal beers.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#28
If you're an alcoholic, and your body is physically dependent on alcohol consumption, would this allow you to satisfy your physical cravings without the deleterious effects normally associated with alcohol addiction? Kind of like how a nicotine patch helps satisfy the physical addiction?

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#29
post #3

pretty sure it's what zbiotics do

Zbiotics targets acetaldehyde, not ethyl alcohol. From the article: > The gel shifts the breakdown of alcohol from the liver to the digestive tract. In contrast to when alcohol is metabolised in the liver, no harmful acetaldehyde is produced as an intermediate product,” explains Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Laboratory of Food & Soft Materials at ETH Zurich. Acetaldehyde is toxic and is responsible for many he…

i meant conceptually even if mechanism of action is different.

Re: New gel breaks down alcohol in the body

#30
post #28

If you're an alcoholic, and your body is physically dependent on alcohol consumption, would this allow you to satisfy your physical cravings without the deleterious effects normally associated with alcohol addiction? Kind of like how a nicotine patch helps satisfy the physical addiction?

>> breaks down alcohol in the gastrointestinal tract without harming the body.

Likely no. This stuff will destroy the alcohol before it enters the bloodstream. So it sounds useful to stop people absorbing more alcohol (pumping the stomach situations) but won't do much for alcohol already in the blood and causing effects in the body.

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