WHY ALCOHOL IS BAD FOR YOUR BODY

---

As you go through the posts on our blog or through our vegetarian cookbook, you’ll notice that we do not use any alcohol. Alcohol is not part of the Christian diet for a few very good reasons, but one of the most important reasons is that alcohol is simply not something that your body will respond well to — here’s why alcohol is bad for your body.

YOUR BODY’S PARTS

As a toxin, alcohol can have a direct negative response on certain parts of your body including your liver, heart,
brain, and overall immune system. According to the BBC, drinking more than three alcoholic drinks per day can have “…a direct and damaging effect on the heart.” Further, the article goes on to state, drinking a lot of alcohol over a long period of time can lead directly to high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, and various other heart-related ailments. There is also some evidence to support the link between alcohol and certain types of cancer.

But what about drinking alcohol in moderation? What does it do to our bodies on a much smaller scale? Alcohol still impacts your body in a negative manner, and even drinking alcohol in moderation can speed up the aging process.

HOW ALCOHOL CAN AGE YOU

Alcohol will dehydrate your skin, and dehydration will instantly lead to older looking skin. So, that’s one very good reason to avoid drinking alcohol. In addition, alcohol (in any amount) causes the liver to work overtime, since alcohol damages the cells that work to detoxify your body (so, essentially, you are working against your body’s natural detoxifying system). While you can stay hydrated while you drink (and before and after you drink), you can’t undo the damage done to your body by consuming any amount of alcohol.

While all of these things are very good reasons not to consume alcohol, there’s another reason why alcohol is not part of the Christian diet.

THE BIBLE AND ALCOHOL

There are a lot of gray areas when it comes to alcohol and the Bible. In the book of Genesis, we find Noah and this passage:

“Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.”

Noah planted a vineyard, drink some wine, and was shamed for it. This may lead us to believe that alcohol is bad in any form. Yet, we can also dig up the following passage from the same book in the Bible (Genesis):

“May God give you of heaven’s dew and of earth’s richness– an abundance of grain and new wine.”

As you can see, there are gray areas when it comes to the consumption of alcohol in the Bible. So, why do we choose not to include alcohol as part of the Christian diet? You won’t find any use of alcohol in our vegetarian cookbook because alcohol does damage the body, and anything that damages the body is not treating the body as a temple. As the familiar passage goes,

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” – 1 Corinthians

Since many scientists believe that alcohol does more damage than good to the body – and even if a glass of red wine can provide antioxidants, alcohol is still a toxin that’s damaging to the body. Thus, alcohol is not a part of our Christian diet. If you have any questions about our vegetarian cookbook or the Christian diet, feel free to ask us here or on Facebook!