The effect of acute and chronic ethanol administration on the gastrointestinal hormones gastrin, enteroglucagon (EG), pancreatic glucagon (PG) and peptide YY (PYY) was studied in the rat alcohol model. Plasma levels of gastrin and PYY were not significantly changed under chronic and/or acute alcohol, while PG was stimulated by acute intraperitoneal ethanol injections in control animals as well as in chronically ethanol-fed rats (8 ± 1 vs. 28 ± 6 pmol/l, p ≤ 0.05, and 7 ± 1 vs. 21 ± 4 pmol/l, p ≤ 0.05). EG levels were significantly raised after chronic ethanol feeding (45 ± 5 vs. 73 ± 8 pmol/l, p ≤ 0.01) and even further elevated if an acute dose of alcohol was given to chronically ethanol-fed rats (73 ± 8 vs. 168 ± 29 pmol/l, p ≤ 0.05). The immunohistologically evaluated numbers of the respective hormone-producing cells were not significantly changed by alcohol feeding. The ethanol-dependent elevations of EG and PG may contribute, at least in part, to the intestinal hyperregeneration, motility disturbances and altered glucose metabolism observed after alcohol consumption.