Colin Purdom (Letters, 18 October) is mistaken in asserting that alcohol is not fattening. As any A-level biology student should be able to tell you, it is converted by the liver enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase to acetaldehyde, then by aldehyde dehydrogenase to acetic acid. This then enters the breathtakingly complex Krebs cycle to be further broken down to water, carbon dioxide and ATP, which is the body’s source of chemical energy. Of course, a sugary alcoholic drink will still have more calories than the equivalent-strength non-sugary one, but sadly, dry champagne is not calorie-free.
Jo Gibson (BSc Hons biochemistry)
Liverpool
• So the £1bn spent on troubled families “has had little effect” (Report, 18 October). Time then for the director of the troubled families programme, Louise Casey, to return the CBE she was given in the 2016 birthday honours list for services to families and vulnerable people? Or do we not expect accountability from those who preach the same message to others in public service?
Vince Mercer
Low Lorton, Cumbria
• Surely it was the spectators who “braved the rain” in Manchester on Monday, not the Olympic athletes (Heroes of Rio brave the rain to celebrate record medal haul, 18 Octobert, 18 October). Or does training stop when it’s damp?
John Huntley
Manchester
• “London will probably cease to be the financial centre of the EU”, writes William Wallace (Letters, 13 October). So, not all bad news then. It’s high time that the domination of our economy by self-serving, socially toxic, borderline criminal finance capital was broken.
Michael McCarthy
London
• If the trend to scrap humanities A-levels such as art history and archaeology continues, a new area of inquiry may soon emerge: the study of now defunct A-levels (Burying A-level archaeology is barbarism, says Tony Robinson, 18 October).
Toby Wood
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
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