Watch What Alcohol Does To Your Body: It's Not Pretty

With all of the delicious recipes for summer cocktails, sometimes it's hard to forget that alcohol actually has a toxic effect on the body. The Daily Meal got the exclusive rights to publish new animated infographics from the Coalition Against Drug Abuse detailing the short- and long-term effects of alcohol consumption.

Most people know about alcohol's negative effects on the liver, but the harmful effects of alcohol actually start the moment the drink touches your mouth: "alcohol is an irritant; it burns when it touches any bodily surface, as you may know if you've ever used it as a disinfectant on a cut," the foundation explains. With prolonged consumption, this can lead to throat and mouth cancers.

Once alcohol enters the body, it may irritate the protective lining of the stomach and cause long-term corrosion. Once it travels to the digestive system, it can interrupt the digestion process by blocking the body from absorbing vitamins and amino acids.

Binge drinking has even worse effects on the heart: It disrupts the heart rhythms and could lead to a scary condition known as alcoholic cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart to underperform. Of course, the effects on the brain are known: The brain releases dopamine when alcohol is consumed, starting the path to addiction.

Click here to read the rest of the negative effects of alcohol on the body.

This all might sound terrifying, but as long as you're drinking responsibly, you should be fine.