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The controversy about vitamins in alcohol. The arguments against the compulsory addition of vitamin B‐1 (thiamin) to alcoholic beverages
Author(s) -
Wood Beverley
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
australian drug and alcohol review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.018
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1465-3362
pISSN - 0819-5331
DOI - 10.1080/09595238980000161
Subject(s) - environmental health , alcohol , scientific evidence , vitamin , medicine , population , nutrition labeling , psychology , food science , chemistry , endocrinology , philosophy , epistemology , biochemistry
The aim of preventing alcohol related brain damage is very important, but if mass medication with a vitamin in a substance of drug abuse — alcoholic beverages — is to be undertaken as a public health preventive measure, there must be very sound scientific evidence to justify it. We have researched the matter thoroughly and cannot find sufficient sound scientific evidence to justify thiamin enrichment of beer and flagon and cask wines in Australia. In this matter there has been considerable controversy and debate for ten years, which indicates the complexity of the issue. While this controversy exists, the mandatory enrichment of some alcoholic beverages (not all have been included) with large quantities of thiamin should not go ahead. The addition of thiamin to alcoholic beverages has not been tested on the world stage, and it will be totally unacceptable to conduct this experiment on the Australian population.