Nutrition in the alcoholic.

Effective management of nutritional problems in the alcoholic patient requires that the clinician understand the complex interaction of alcohol and nutrition. Nutritional deficiencies should be prevented and, if present, corrected. However, experimental, clinical, and epidemiological evidence indicates that despite adequate diets, ethanol has direct toxic effects on the digestion, absorption and activation of foodstuff. Furthermore, recent studies have shown that even in well nourished populations relatively small amounts of alcohol may have cirrhogenic potential. For these reasons, the overall approach to the management of the alcoholic must involve the control of alcohol intake as well as the prevention and correction of nutritional disturbances.