Alcohol: why do we drink it? People have been consuming alcohol for at least 10,000 years. And when drinking water was rather risky, alcohol seemed a much safer bet. Amaldus of Villanova, a 14th-century monk, even wrote that alcohol “prolongs life, clears away ill humors, revives the heart and maintains youth”. 

Today people will give you many reasons for their decision to drink and most of these reflect the effects it has on mind and brain. But before you get too sozzled, one thing is for sure: it is certainly not a safer, healthier bet than water.

1. It tastes nice

It depends on what you are drinking (some drinks like alcopops contain more sugar) and people obviously have different taste preferences. The fact that ethanol is created from sugars is also likely to increase our propensity to drink. For example, research suggests that some individuals have a predisposition to prefer sugar and this can make them more prone to developing alcohol addiction. Alcohol also seems to act on some of the same brain areas activated by sweet tastes.

Yet ethanol is not always perceived as pleasant; it can be quite bitter. If ethanol is given over time rats show increasing “tasty” responses in their mouth and facial expressions. However, if it’s given after naltrexone, a substance that reduces opioid activity – which signals “liking” something among other things – in the brain, “aversive” reactions increase, and less alcohol is consumed. This suggests that the opioid receptors mediate how much we like alcohol. And substances like naltrexone are used to treat people with alcohol use disorder.

Claire Rostron, Senior Lecturer, The Open University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.