Is alcohol BETTER than soft drinks?

Watch the 30:13 minute and the reasoning why Dr Lustig announces that alcohol is better than soft-drinks - because it is 'self-limiting' in terms that "you can drink yourself under the table once a day".

I might take it as a joke, but it does not sound like one. 

But let's say it was meant serious: if something does not make you unconscious daily it makes you worse? 

Does regular drinking, especially when it gets you under the table once a day,  pose no health risk to people??? Is soda worse because you can keep drinking it all day without getting unconscious, violent or at least unresponsive in your usual ways?

How far this anti-sugar agenda can go? 

You could have heard Dr Lustig saying that fructose is an alcohol without a buzz. His article in this spirit was even published in a journal. However, I know that a high portion of fructose (depending on the energy status) can be converted to glucose or lactate (or even glycogen) as an immediate and future source of energy. 

Alcohol, aside from the buzz that is often behind violence, car accidents and other incidents, can also be converted to energy, but it is rather via fat and energy intermediates, that are metabolized preferentially, because they and alcohol itself are otherwise toxic substances and the body deals with them before it will turn to proteins or carbohydrates as the next in the established hierarchy of substrate oxidation. 

And that is probably the reason why those countries, where alcohol is not served at such a large scale, suffer obesity and diabetes more: alcohol does not drive insulin as high as soda does via its glucose portion. However, alcohol, as well as carbohydrates, can help spare fats, because both of the former substrates are metabolized first. The body tends to store the excess fat when it does not need its energy when it got enough energy from either the carbohydrates or alcohol. It is glucose that drives insulin up much more, promoting fat storage when fatty food is consumed along (which is often the case of these countries), than alcohol or fructose alone.

That was regarding the metabolic mechanism in relation to obesity. That does not mean that alcohol is better than sugar. Only when watching another video from 2014, you could hear Dr Lustig saying that it was a joke. Well, firstly it did not sound like a joke. And perhaps somebody advised Dr Lustig to make sure that the audience understands it was not meant seriously. 

I see that as I proceed by watching more videos of Dr Lustig on this topic, that he alters his claims and adds some information which he did not say in his older materials. So if you see me commenting on something which he added or explained in his later videos, while my comments were based on his older materials, please bear this in mind. I try to alter the text where necessary, but I may not have captured them all.