GoodFood – Low-alcohol cocktails in bright packaging are often perceived by teenagers as a harmless drink, but they are dangerous, writes Bishkek Center for Health Promotion.
“Sweet low-alcohol cocktails are a real explosive mixture of sugar, dye and alcohol, which, in addition to the dose of alcohol, supplies an excess amount of calories to the teenager’s body. Often, such jars also contain caffeine, which negatively affects the nervous and cardiovascular systems,” the center writes.
Doctors remind: there is no safe dose of alcohol, even for adults. For teenagers, any alcohol consumption is associated with serious risks – primarily because the brain at this age continues to form and is especially vulnerable to the effects of chemicals. Ethanol slows down the development of thinking, disrupts the development of moral standards and can suppress already manifested abilities. In addition, the immature brain of a teenager forms alcohol addiction much faster.
The consequences for internal organs are no less serious. The liver of a teenager is destroyed by alcohol faster than that of an adult: the permeability of the vascular walls is higher, and the enzymatic mechanisms have not yet been formed. Drinking alcohol also disrupts the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas, which in the long term threatens pancreatitis and diabetes.
The attraction to alcohol in adolescents arises not because of the taste, but because of the effect of intoxication: at the first use, a feeling of a surge of strength and euphoria appears – this is what makes acquaintance with alcohol especially dangerous at a young age.
