Through my recent quest for sobriety I have started to research the actual physiological effects of alcohol on the human body. At this point I have come to the conclusion that alcohol (ethanol) consumption in any amount is bad for the body. While it is common to hear people say "A couple drinks won't hurt you, and in fact, a glass or two of wine every day is actually good for you", I think that common sense would argue otherwise. For example, assume you had never ingested alcohol before and then sat down and drank a couple shots of straight alcohol (think Moon Shine) in a glass. I think that without question your body would react negatively. It is only after blending the alcohol with mixers to hide the taste and then conditioning yourself with repeated ingestion that you can even keep the stuff down. Your body is clearly telling you that drinking even an "acceptable" or "reasonable" amount of alcohol is harmful. I believe the alcoholic beverage industry would like to continue the myth that a "reasonable" amount of alcohol does you no harm, but I think that is mostly a marketing ploy to sell the product. My common sense tells me that any alcohol ingested will do some level of harm to my body.