Nutrition is well-recognized as a necessary component of educational programs for physicians. This is to be valued in that of all factors affecting health in the United States, none is more important than nutrition. This can be argued from various perspectives, including health promotion, disease prevention, and therapeutic management. In all cases, serious consideration of nutrition related issues in the practice is seen to be one means to achieve cost-effective medical care. These modules were designed to provide more practical knowledge to health care providers, and in particular primary care physicians. This module is designed to present nutrition-related consequences of chronic consumption of alcohol. The effects of alcohol on nutrient metabolism as well as nutritional intervention when liver metabolism is altered secondary to alcohol ingestion and liver damage are discussed. Since the patient who continues to drink poses special nutritional problems, suggested counseling techniques are presented. Included are learning goals and objectives, self-checks of achievement with regard to goals, and references for the physician and for the physician to give to the patient. (CW)