According to a story in today's comic, the absurdly low government guidelines on booze and tobacco are wrong and the only sensible option is not to drink any alcohol or smoke at all.
Much too late in my case as the govt guidelines are addressed to those aged between 55 and 65. I am 12 years outside this frame and still tottering along.
Moreover I have been told firmly by the doc that it would be very bad for me to 'suddenly stop drinking alcohol altogether'. However she remained firm on smoking anything at all (as if one didn't know) so I remain a bit furtive in that area, muttering something about 'trying to cut down' on this or that.
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Wine, especially the red variety, has been studied extensively over many years with impressive findings suggesting it may promote a longer lifespan, protect against certain cancers, improve mental health, and provide benefits to the heart.
This Medical News Today article focuses on the health benefits of drinking wine. It includes a brief history of wine, as well as explaining what moderate wine consumption is. At the end of the article there is some information on resveratrol, a compound found in wine and some plants.
Most of the content and quotes in this article refer to red wine, however one study published by the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry concluded for the first time that white wine may provide the same cardio-protective qualities as red wine.
More studies on white wine are needed to confirm these results.
However, as many more studies have focused on red wine, most of the content and quotes in this article refer to red wine.
www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265635.php
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>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=yco3kNtYDFY
Yup, that's about the size of it. That and medical advice of course.
:o}
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>> >> Yup, that's about the size of it. That and medical advice of course.
Rab C. Nesbitt, that's the cat. A man of sound instincts. Pity he's a fictional character really.
Get the odd Rab type person up there on Saturday night do you Lygonos? They did in Edinburgh I'm told on medical authority.
I was one myself for a while there. Cough.
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>>
>> Moreover I have been told firmly by the doc that it would be very bad
>> for me to 'suddenly stop drinking alcohol altogether'.
That's a good raft to cling to. :)
A bit like having a large tree next to one's house. Arguably better not to have planted it 50 years ago, but removing it now risks serious damage to one's foundations by upsetting the fluid balance.
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Drinking a good Aussie Shiraz always makes me feel much better and years younger.
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The clocks going back an hour confront me with a long void before a legitimate snorterino, too long for my health I fear. I may jump the gun by say half an hour or an hour.
Herself won't be best pleased if she notices. Furtive is the watchword. Can I hold out for ten more minutes? It's touch and go.
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A friend brought back from the States a little plaque which says:
"Wine is a sign that God loves you
and wants you to be happy"
8o)
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>> Herself won't be best pleased if she notices. Furtive is the watchword.
She was going to the shop today and I asked her to get supplies, saying I would pay.
The darling brought proper Russian vodka albeit a mainstream brand. She said it was the best deal. Just need to exercise a measure of restraint later. So far so good.
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A question about vodka.
I don't drink the stuff myself but I understand that i consists of a mixture of pure ethanol and water. The makers boast about multiple distillations and how pure it is. Sometimes flavours are added but I'm talking about the unflavoured stuff
If it's just pure ethanol and water why does it matter whether the fermented product was grain or potatoes and what is the difference between the cheap stuff and the posh brands. Ethanol is ethanol isn't it?
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>> Ethanol is ethanol isn't it?
That's always been my understanding, yes.
But there's ethanol and ethanol. Decent vodka is pure clean ethanol that doesn't give you a headache or make you throw up. On the other hand I had a thing called Chang'aa in Kenya once that was pretty deadly damn stuff, yuck, and I'd rather not think about the bits I can remember.
All ethanol though. It's the impurities that count. Whisky hits me harder than vodka.
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Similarly water is water. Except that some supposed drinking water tastes of swimming pools and some fresh spring water is like nectar.
But then distilled water is tasteless.
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Well yes but water contains many impurities which give it taste. The manufacturers of vodka boast of its purity and use multiple distillations to obtain that purity. They do not boast that their alcohols contains a lot of impurities to give it flavour.
Does the difference come from the impurities in the added water?
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Is it about now we have to talk about speaker cables? Again.
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>> Well yes but water contains many impurities which give it taste. The manufacturers of vodka
>> boast of its purity and use multiple distillations to obtain that purity. They do not
>> boast that their alcohols contains a lot of impurities to give it flavour.
The ethanol is presumably not the only substance in the wines that survives the distillation process. Whisky illustrates that.
I don't think I have ever drunk vodka but why wouldn't the same apply? Too many distillations and you may well end up with near-pure alcohol - which might be the objective if your wines were made from something especially foul such as rotten spuds I suppose. I wouldn't be surprise to find it's the cheap ones that profess the most distillations.
>> Does the difference come from the impurities in the added water?
Must have some effect.
Last edited by: Manatee on Mon 26 Oct 15 at 20:46
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No it's the dearest vodkas that claim the most distillations which is what I don't understand. They make a great claim to absolute purity.
Whisky on the other hand certainly achieves its flavour at least partly form the impurities that survives the single distillation process although a lot of flavour comes from the cask.
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Most malt whiskies are batch distilled twice, first to produce the 'low wines' at about 20% alcohol, then in the spirit still to further concentrate the alcohol and remove unwanted impurities.
The 'number' of distillations is I suspect a red herring, beyond that. A 'single' distillation can have a number of cuts, some distillate will be binned, some re-distilled, and a only part will make the final product.
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The ethanol is presumably not the only substance in the wines that survives the distillation process. Whisky illustrates that.
A bit, but nowhere near as much as you think. Much of the whisky taste comes from the maturation in casks in warehouses/bonded stores and absorbtion from the casks, often second hand sherry casks, and the surrounding air.
I really have tasted the output direct from a still, and it is a bit like drinking rocket fuel, not much taste and an almighty kick. Quite a lot of even malts have added caramel to make the colour consistent. Purists (myself included) argue this is tosh and the product should be kept pure. I know Glenfarclas doesn't have caramel added, I've been on a tour taken round by the distillery owner.
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>> The ethanol is presumably not the only substance in the wines that survives the distillation
>> process. Whisky illustrates that.
>>
>> A bit, but nowhere near as much as you think.
The phenols that are characteristic of heavily peated whiskies don't come from the wood. Between a quarter and a half of what's in the wash makes it through the distillation IIRC.
Wood has become very fashionable though.
>> I really have tasted the output direct from a still, and it is a bit
>> like drinking rocket fuel
It would be, it's 70% alcohol.
I agree with you about the colouring. Designed to mislead.
I have a Glenfarclas 105 (105% proof, 60% ABV) tucked away. Can't remember what I'm saving it for.
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I had a tour of Adnam's distillery in Southwold recently.
I was surprised when they told us their gin is their vodka, flavoured with juniper berries.
They use the same still for all their spirits.
They got quite upset when I told them I thought their malt whisky tasted like a grain. I certainly wouldn't give it space in my drinks cupboard.
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Oddly, I've also toured the Beefeater Gin distillery too :o) . There are two basic types of gin, the flavoured one where they just take the spirit and bash it about in the botanicals, and those that are distilled through/with the botanicals.
This is a reasonable description of the proper process but London gin made in Birmingham? Er no!
www.alcohols.co.uk/gin_distillation.php
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>> pure clean ethanol that doesn't give you a headache or make you throw up. On the other hand I had a thing called Chang'aa in Kenya once
Based I'm pretty sure on millet or sweet corn beer. Sounds harmless, and is if you can stomach it, but the distillation process to soup it up into Chang'aa is very traditional and I suspect, judging by the way I felt afterwards, that there was a fair amount of methyl in there too.
Same thing, not quite as bad, in Lagos with Ogogoro, made from distilled palm wine. One local name for it translates as 'White Man Foolish'. Ginger Baker and I were both rendered senseless and idiotic by it in Fela Kuti's house. A good dash of meths in that as well if you ax me comrade.
You gotta have the constitution for this traditional stuff.
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>> Ginger Baker and I were both rendered senseless and idiotic by it in Fela Kuti's house.
Fela didn't provide the Ogogoro. It came not from the man himself but from some of the badass boys who congregated round him. They knew where to get it, and weed too.
Fela made his driver Lai give me a brisk tour of the Lagos underworld, so to speak, when I went to stay in his house. Lai knew all sorts of gangsters including 'Doctor' Oyenusi, who had magical powers. The tour included the burnt-out remains of Oyenusi's house... he'd gone a bit too far in some way.
Lai also took me to the rubbish tips, which had a whole community living in them and reducing the rubbish to harmless rubbish, sort of winnowing it.
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>> Lai also took me to the rubbish tips, which had a whole community living in them and reducing the rubbish to harmless rubbish, sort of winnowing it.
The people who lived in the tips looked to me like a specialized tribe, dusty little cats all with the same look about them. They looked like no one else in Lagos.
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AC, you sound like the sort of cat who spent considerable time on the Dark Continent. Did you ever meet a recently deceased good friend of mine called Ted Saunders? Born in the East End, a committed communist in his youth who mellowed to being simply red. Same age as you, married a Canadian girl called Pat, teetotal, but 'Red Ted' drank like a fish. Taught in Africa for many years, smuggled guns for the ANC, knew lots of badass people, and in later life owned Post Horn Books in Giggleswick. Fortunately, directly next door to the Harts Head, which was his second home. And one of my locals. A local expert on bush meat, African Politics and a devout hater of all homeopathy!!
When Pat was away we would meet in the HH early Sunday winter afternoons, 12:30 ish, and stagger home 9 hours later. An amazing man with amazing stories. Sadly missed by all the locals in the pub, but he got a damn good send off.
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>> Did you ever meet a recently deceased good friend of mine called Ted Saunders? Born in the East End, a committed communist in his youth who mellowed to being simply red. Same age as you,
Never did to my knowledge, but it's possible, as one did meet the odd Anglo from time to time without knowing who they were.
Really Africa's an absolutely huge place where thousands of whites can coexist without ever seeing each other. When you do meet one it's often a shock to the system... 'What's this carphound doing here on my patch?' as it were. You can get possessive.
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>Really Africa's an absolutely huge place where thousands of whites can coexist without ever seeing each other.
It's also so goddam small that I'm sure that I could walk into just about any bar in Africa and meet someone whose path I had crossed somewhere or other. There would probably be a Scottish engineer propping up the end of the bar as well.
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>> Really Africa's an absolutely huge place
>> It's also so goddam small that I'm sure that I could walk into just about any bar
Anyone watch 'Beware of Mr Baker' on the box just now? What a reprobate, and what fun. The piece had my buddy Fela in it too. Those dancing girls of his could really wriggle, and dig the muscle definition...
Scary cat Ginger in several ways, but what an honour to have known him (ponce ponce). A terrific musician too who gave proper credit to the drummers he learned from.
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Yep I saw that.
Your mate Hoppy was on another thing the other night too... something about the UFO club was mentioned I think.
Pretty sure it was this...
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06jp24b/psychedelic-britannia
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Found him and the UFO bit... 15min 30sec.
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>> Hoppy was on another thing the other night too... something about the UFO club was mentioned I think.
>> Pretty sure it was this...
Vivid cat, the young Hoppy, no?
He was a promoter more than anything. Two other good friends in that general category featured largely: Miles and Joe Boyd. Of course there were other bands and faces, male and female, known to me if not always by name... you've made me waste an hour Fenlander!
The UFO club was in a basement called the Blarney Club in Tottenham Court Road before it moved a bit north to the Roundhouse, whose revival from a dusty warehouse was another of Hoppy's achievements. I had my Bentley at the time and can remember getting ripped in it with members/managers of the Pink Floyd parked outside the Blarney club. Of course I was at the 14-hour technicolor dream in the Alexandra Palace too.
I was harshly intellectual then as now and got a bit impatient with drooping 'Oh, wow...' soppy hippy crap. Didn't like much of the 'psychedelic' music either, although the Floyd had a couple of good songs.
I was there though, and I'm glad I was although not proud (I was just there, and not a performer but an observer). It didn't change anything much. We're still the shrewd, sceptical British.
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Nice one Fl, I would have missed that as I don't often watch the idiots lantern these days. I was a London freak, still am really AND I have a pig? tail. You can take the London freak out of London ... :)
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>> Fela didn't provide the Ogogoro. It came not from the man himself but from some of the badass boys who congregated round him. They knew where to get it, and weed too.
First time I saw ogogoro, a real friend poured a small amount onto a concrete wall and lit it.
It burned with a clear blue flame for several minutes. I think the friend was trying to tell me something.
The first sip robbed me of speech, and indeed of any ability to utter a sound, for a couple of minutes too. One's throat went into spasm.
Great stuff. I recommend it for the fearless. But don't gulp, just sip.
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>> Based I'm pretty sure on millet or sweet corn beer.
Not sweet corn, a coarser variant known as maize.
OK, OK, I knew you knew. Take it easy.
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Worst beer I ever tasted was a thing in Tanzania called chibuku, made from fermented red beans. It was a dark red porridgey semi-fluid with an alcohol content of 1% or less, quite an effort to get any down (and not much was no use at all).
Chibuku: give it a miss. Whinge at the locals until they come up with something distilled, however poorly. That may do you a bit of harm with luck.
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>> a thing in Tanzania called chibuku, made from fermented red beans.
Chibuku had a quite pleasantly sour taste. The bad things about it were the consistency, and the useless alcohol content. You have to come from those parts to actually like the stuff.
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Here's some good news about how to prevent dementia...:-)
tinyurl.com/qhoqqjv
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I find a good rule of thumb for assessing a theory is the principle of cui bono - who benefits?
If someone is advocating a theory for which which they obviously relish the consequences, then be very cautious about believing it.
You can just tell when an individual or an organisation funded by someone else can hardly wait to blurt out its contentious conclusions, and you can almost visualise them exitedly waving their little fists in the air.
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During my time in the USSR, beer was extremely hard to come by. Very occasionally, you'd see a susupicious looking tanker type truck coming to a halt on a street corner, followed by a scattering of locals to their homes to retrieve jamjars, empty bottles, any kind of recepticle really.
The tanker would contain a kind of weak, cloudy, beer-like brew, foul tasting and impossible to get drunk on, but still, it was better than nothing and we would duly queue with our containers for a fix - dispensed directly from the truck from a hose. Dare say it's slightly easier to get a pint in Moscow these days.
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>> a kind of weak, cloudy, beer-like brew, foul tasting and impossible to get drunk on, but still, it was better than nothing
Kvass? Does it still exist?
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Yes, kvass, that's the stuff. How did I foget the name? Urgh.
It seems it's still wildly popular:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass#/media/File:Kvass_tractor_2008_G1.jpg
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NICE gets nasty - madf
