THE EFFECT OF FRUCTOSE ON THE METABOLISM OF ETHYL ALCOHOL IN MAN

¹ From the Nutrition Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Boston, Massachusetts

The amount of alcohol in the expired air and the respiratory exchange were measured for three hours in successive fifteen-minute periods after the ingestion of 10, 15, and 20 cc. of alcohol with the addition of 31, 46.5, and 62 grams of fructose respectively. The respiratory exchange was also measured after the ingestion of these amounts of fructose without alcohol.

Alcohol was found in the expired air for a shorter period of time by about a half hour than with the same quantities of glucose and alcohol. Therefore, fructose causes the disappearance of alcohol more quickly than glucose.

The respiratory quotient after fructose, as usual, was increased markedly, varying from 0.13 to 0.10. The simultaneous ingestion of alcohol along with fructose caused a lowering in the respiratory quotient for a period of time varying from 1 to 2 hours. Subsequently, with the two larger amounts of fructose there was a rise in the respiratory quotient as large, if not greater, than would be found in the same period of time with fructose alone.

A calculation of the material metabolized shows that the ingestion of alcohol along with fructose produced a greater lowering in the metabolism of fat than was found with fructose alone. Like the experiments with glucose, there was a tendency toward a summation of the effects on the metabolism of fat when the two were given together. Alcohol had more of an effect on the metabolism of carbohydrates after the ingestion of fructose than it did with glucose.

Both the ingestion of fructose and fructose and alcohol resulted in an increase in heat production, and there was a summation of the effects of the two when given together. With the 15 cc. alcohol and 46.5 grams of fructose the rise in heat production was equivalent to 6.8 per cent of the energy value of the materials. The percentage of heat due to alcohol in the experiments with fructose varied from 25 per cent with 10 cc. of alcohol to 39 per cent with 20 cc. alcohol. However, when the calculations are made on the basis of period of time only during which alcohol was found in the expired air, the percentages are so large as to render questionable the assumption that with the disappearance of alcohol from the expired air it has been burned or, as with the glucose study, to point to the possibility of a transformation of alcohol into some other substance. This is particularly true with the smallest amount of alcohol.