Who invented drinking alcohol

As well as its acute and potentially lethal sedative effect at high doses, alcohol has effects on every organ in the body and these effects depend on the blood alcohol concentration BAC over time. Find out what happens when you drink alcohol. Call the Alcohol Drug Helpline on , visit their website , or free txt Skip to main content. Open search Close main menu. Open main menu Close main menu Open search Close main menu. Many of them have split open, drawing him to their intoxicating fruity odor.

He gorges himself and begins to experience some… strange effects. This unwitting ape has stumbled on a process that humans will eventually harness to create beer, wine, and other alcoholic drinks.

The sugars in overripe fruit attract microscopic organisms known as yeasts. As the yeasts feed on the fruit sugars they produce a compound called ethanol— the type of alcohol in alcoholic beverages. This process is called fermentation. Nobody knows exactly when humans began to create fermented beverages.

The earliest known evidence comes from 7, BCE in China, where residue in clay pots has revealed that people were making an alcoholic beverage from fermented rice, millet, grapes, and honey.

Within a few thousand years, cultures all over the world were fermenting their own drinks. Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians made beer throughout the year from stored cereal grains. This beer was available to all social classes, and workers even received it in their daily rations.

By contrast, in Greece and Rome, where grapes grew more easily, wine was as readily available as beer was in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Because yeasts will ferment basically any plant sugars, ancient peoples made alcohol from whatever crops and plants grew where they lived. Email Address. What is Alcohol? Drinking and Driving.

Young People Versus Adults. What's the Difference? What is Binge Drinking? What is Alcoholism or Alcohol Dependence? International Statistics. The Youngest Victims. Alcohol: A Short History. The Truth About Drugs. Fermented beverages in early Egyptian civilization.

Photo Credit: GoddessGift. How much do you really know about alcohol? Contact Us. Start Free E-Courses. Take the Quiz. Download Booklets.