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Beer Added To The Food Pyramid
Alehound writes " Beer Is Food: The US Government labeled beer(alcohol) as a drug, BeerAdvocate.com begs to differ as they inform their reader that beer can be a part of your diet in a healthy way. Beer does a body good? So the "Beer Gut" is a myth? So why the hell do I have a gut? And yes these guys do drink beer for breakfast." It's only 10 in the morning, I'm dumping out the half pot of coffee left, and cracking open a Boddingtons! Do it!
I actually found a good use for budweiser. Not for drinking, but for cooking. You can make a real good gravy using 1/2 part bud and 1/2 part stock (chicken or beef).
Otherwise, make mine Guiness or Sam Adams. Aside from unfiltered beers or home brew, beer does not contain any yeast, and the carbonation is a result of injecting CO2 into the beer before capping it. You'll know if there's yeast in it if you find crunchies at the bottom of the bottle.
Oh yea, beer is just mostly empty carbs. Almost no nutritional value. At best, I'd put it down in the same category as 'snack food'.
That article is a load of BS.
For example "And for the record, beer is not fattening" - yeah right, any absorbton of calories above what are expended is turned into fat, plain and simple.
Remember, there are 7 calories per gram of alchohol to consider above the carbs (I think 1 pint/550ml of beer has around 200 calories in total).
The simple truth is, a balanced diet, mixed exercise and sufficient rest are the way to health. If you have these, beer shouldn't matter.
Oh, I won't even go into their "hops can also be found in teas" BS - only in poncy flavoured teas. Tea leaves are the only ingredient of tea.
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FreeNET user? Comfortable with the adverse selection?
it's called the 'LD-50', or the lethal dose that kill 50% of the rats. go fuck yourself.
we do experiments like that all the time; we usually inject a drug directly into the brain of an animal (such as a stray cat or dog) and evaluate the drugs effect.
Unfrotunately, beer does itself contribute to the beer belly. It's not just a matter of how much carbs something has but what kind of carbs they are. Beer has maltose, which is actually one of the more troublesome carbs because it is digested quickly, spikes your blood sugar level quickly and brings with it an associated spike in insulin, which then brings your blood sugar level down low, and makes you hungrier. So, it is in fact the other stuff that makes you fat, but the beer often contributes to your wanting the other stuff. Different types of beer have different elements which modify the digestion process, so the effect varies. A nice stout seems to fill me up quite nicely, so it must have something going for it. But I have lost 25 pounds on my low-carb diet, so until I reach my target weight, I'm gonna hold back on the Guinness.
It was originally concieved as a way to preserve grains that would otherwise rot through the winter. Beer is rich in carbs and B vitamins. You could live for months on beer alone if you had to. It certainly has a place in a healthy diet. I think wine might be better for you though...
Not that I'm condoning drinking American beer, mind you... there is real beer just across your northern border, ppl...
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
You get that northern slop in the U.S?
No, not really. There is no true bitters imported into America.
As manky as the Boddingtons is abroad, it's much, much worse in the States.
There has been more than one study that shows the effects of moderate alcohol consumption to be beneficial to cardiovascular health and in particular reducing the risk of stroke and Type II diabetes.
Also of interesting note, there is what is referred to as The French Paradox (which has nothing to do with French military might and their place in NATO). Instead it refers to the fact that the french have a diet high in saturated fat (think cream and cheese) and high high rates of alcohol consumption (think wine) yet have low rates of morbid obesity comapred to other nations (and especially to the US).
MMORPG fan-boy? Prove your worth
Also, in them olden days, you couldn't trust the water. As hops are an antiseptic, you knew the beer was safe.
A friend who researched the education of the founding fathers (she spent a ton of time reading diaries, etc.) told me that the morning meal for many a US patriot was a cup of ale. Apparently the ale they drank was a lot heavier and meal like than what we drink today.
It makes sense. In the days before chlorinated water and refrigerator, ale would have been one of the more reliable ways of preserving foods.
Well, in the US, beer is just another word for brown water with alcohol, it seems.
I've yet to taste any American beer that has the least bit of flavour to it.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
A drink or two a day of wine, beer or liquor is, experts say, often the single best nonprescription way to prevent heart attacks -- better than a low-fat diet or weight loss, better even than vigorous exercise. Moderate drinking can help prevent strokes, amputated limbs and dementia.
Reminder for Canucks, Toronto Ontario Beer Festival happens August 8,9,10 at Old Fort York.
Fortunately, lager yeasts (which ferment between 40 and 50 degrees F) will ferment out at ale tempuratures (aound 70 degrees F) as well. Doesn't work the other way. The important thing here is that they could still use the yeasts they had been using for generation. They merely needed to adapt the process (and to some extent, their yeast cultures) to the conditions in which they found themselves. So, german immigrants to the bay area made german style beers with lager yeasts fermented at ale temperatures. Voila, new style! It has a nice malty character, characterisitic of many german beers and is rather hoppy, but not overly so. It has a clean taste, characteristic of a larger and a little hint of the fruity taste you get from top-fermenting ale fermentations.
While not comercial in the sense of Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukie, WI, it is a commercial beer with national and international distibution (dispelling the myth that all American non-micros suck).
I don't know how the US gov will define beer, but that's how they should, IMNSHO. With the explosion of good micros, brewpubs, local styles, etc. in the US, maybe need something equivalent to the French DOC in America, only for beer.
It's taken a long time to undo the damage done, by Prohibition. The government could acutally (Shock) do something good here if they define it this way (i.e. something of local repute, high quality, specific process for manufacture using the most exacting standards and best ingredients).
That would be cool.
If you never make mistakes, it's probably because you're not doing anything.
Beer (and other forms of alcohol) IS and have been part of a food pyramid for nearly 4 years!
Some Background For The Uninitiated
The concept of the Food Pyramid was proposed by researches at the US Department of Agriculture, who needed to convey the idea of a healthy diet (according to the dogma of the time) in terms of proportion, variety and moderation. Thus, the pyramid graphic was presented. The problem is that word, "dogma".
The USDA is by far not even close to the leading edge of nutrition and dietary research. Their food pyramid represented a diet heavy in breads, with a little less emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Meat was eschewed, as was diary, and fats, oils, and salts were placed at the top of the pyramid to emphasize that they were to be used sparingly.
Two problems with the Food Pyramid were immediately obvious. First, it ignored contemporary research and accepted medical though which stated that diets high in fish and poultry were beneficial. The USDA assumed that all means were bad because of their high animal fat content. But research at the time (and subsequent) proved that not all fat was bad, and not only was some fat good, but actually necessary. Also, the Food Pyramid didn't differntiate between breads that were healthy (whole grains) and those that were unhealthy (white rice, bleached flour, corn startches, pasta, and processed grains in which the fiber had been stripped chemically). They simply lumped all grains together.
The second problem was that the food pyramid tried to convey a sense of proportion by giving recommended serving amounts. But these serving amounts were meaningless to the average person. They needed to know what a serving was. Was it a gram, kilo, cup, pound, ounce, or something else?
Enter the Diet Fads
Actually, "Fad" diets aren't new. The term is used for just about any new diet which proclaims a principal not accepted in contemporary circles - so fad diets are not inherently bad, but most turn out that way. Fad diets did for Americans what the USDA didn't with thier Food Pyramid or "Four Food Groups" of prior years. It gave people a guide to how much of what should be eaten. The other problem is that these fad diets were targeted towards weight loss. Most of them worked for most people who tried them to some degree, but their failure came when the diet was over. Without a sense of proper nutrition, people reverted to their unhealthy ways of eating. Thus was coined the term "Yo-Yo" dieting, where a person loses weight, then gains it back, and loses it again. This constant state of flux is not healthy, and coupled with the sedantary lifestyle of the average American, it has lead to an epidemic of obesity.
The word "diet" itself has become synonymous with "trying to lose weight", and likewise has become eschewed by the very diet industry that gave rise to that misconception. Instead, they are using terms like "nutrition system" or "program".
Fighting Fat With Knowledge
Enter the molecular biologists, who have put the American diet and the human metabolism under a microscope. Some of the results they have come up with are startling, and have been used to construct a New Food Pyramid to counter the USDA's Food Pyramid. A notable development is the recognition that there are cultural differences that prevent a food pyramid for the American diet from being at all practical for other cultures.
Healthy, as in Beer
Beer, and other forms of alcohol, were discovered to be healthy in moderation. Moderation, of course, is the key to everything in a diet. A glass of wine daily can reduce risk factors related to heart disease and stroke. Beer was found to have a phytoprotein that actually aids in repairing cardiac muscle tissues. Red wine, long given to Soviet Nuclear Submariners, can protect the body from low levels of ionizing radiation (though potassium iodide is b
What made beer important in the olden days is that you had to boil the water to make good beer, which killed off any baddies in the local water.
Once the water was clean, the yeast has a "clean playground" to propogate in vast field of sugar with no competition from other lil' nasties.
Once the yeast has finished its job and turned sugar in the the better things in life (alcohol), the alcohol itself takes over acting as a preservative.
So you really have two reasons why beer is "purified water": boiling it cleans it, alcohol keeps it clean.
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
The best regime seems to be moderate exercise (enough to raise pulse to fat burn/cardio border) for 30 mins a few times a week, combined with a few glasses of wine a day (or equivalent), and a balanced diet. By balanced diet I mean the usual low-fat low-salt low-sugar five portions of fruit/veg a day and reasonable carbs.
And the single most important factor - don't smoke .
I hereby inform you that I have NOT been required to provide any decryption keys.
Beer made from Hops contain estrogens (plant derived). The estrogen content tends to influence your body to store more fat. The herb, hops, by itself has a 'relaxing effect' in herbal medicine, and, BTW, is in the same family as the cannibis plant -- a family noted as 'advanced' as it has two sexes. I'm not familiar with maltose or how much it is used in beer production, so I can't comment on how much it contributes, but herbal books will warn that phytoestrogens in hops can cause fat to be deposited into the classic "beer-belly" pattern (this effect is independant of alcohol other than alcohol having 7 calories/gram that can be converted to and stored as fat).
;-).
Plant estrogens can also cause gynomastia (breast/nipple development and fat storage around nipple/breast area) as well as lower testosterone levels. They are also linked to erectile dysfunction in some men. I would speculate that they could also lower libido and sperm count.
Women with estrogen related disorders, especially cancer, should avoid phytoestrogens as they can stimulate cancer and/or tumor growth. Also, women who are pregnant should avoid phytoestrogens (not just in hops, but also some soy products, licorice and others) since they can interfere with fetal development.
I could speculate that taking products with extra estrogen effects could especially hinder male fetus development. That's why there are BIG cautions about pregnant women even handling drugs like propecia which block the testosterone derivative DHT (I think that's Di-hydrotestosterone). If testosterones are blocked during fetal development, an XY-"chromosoned" baby might develop as female (since all babies start out as 'female', and only testosterone surges during certain stages of development result in the baby developing male sex characteristics.
It's been noted that there are two large surges of testosterone during male fetus development -- the first is associated with genital development. The 2nd occurs later on during brain development and is _speculated_ to affect how the brain develops.
I'd be cautious about considering 'beer' as some generic food group component,
(which doesn't mean an icy cold beer on a hot day doesn't taste good, though technically, it has a dehydrating effect...:-( ).
Reminds me of problems with chocolate -- how can something that tastes so good be bad for you....
Today we pasteurize beer - before this practice became mainstream, beer used to be pretty unsanitary.
Pasteurization has nothing to do with sanitary in beer. Homebrewers never pasteurize their beer.
Firstly, let's talk about unsanitary. Unsanitary - back then - meant things like cholera, which lived quite happily in water and was a serious health threat. The alcohol in beer kills things like cholera. There are no known human pathogens that can grow or live in beer, so you can't mess up and brew something that'll hurt you. So, in the context of unclean water, beer _is_ sanitary - the alcohol kills germs.
Secondly, let's talk about pasteurization. In milk, pasteurization kills off certain bacteria that are present in the production chain (read: cow) but bad for humans in some cases. In beer, pasteurization kills off the yeast (not bad for humans, BTW) which insures that the fermentation will stop and the flavor of the beer will reach stasis. It does not kill of nasties; nasties can't live in beer. Again, homebrewers don't pasteurize, they don't need to, and it's too hard to do without killing the flavor. In fact, unpasteurized beer with yeast residue has lots of vitamin B, which helps with hangovers.
In short: beer didn't used to be unsanitary, water did. Beer still isn't. Water may be, depending upon where you live.
So are we going to start seeing the fancy labels which are on all the other foods?
Nope. The BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) will not allow brewers to put anything that might be (correctly or incorrectly) intepreted as health information. The Yakima Brewery in Washington had to deal with ATF harrassment when they had the temerity to list calories, protein, carbohydrates, fat, cholesterol, sodium and potassium.