Tag Archives: beer

Don’t save your alcohol units until the weekend

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wineA study comparing patterns of alcohol consumption in Northern Ireland and France found that the binge drinkers of Belfast were at a much greater risk of heart disease.  The choice of beer or wine may also be important.

The volume of alcohol consumed by middle aged men in Northern Ireland and France is almost identical. However, in Belfast, the alcohol is all consumed within one or two days at the weekend. Drinkers in France tend to consume the same amount over a whole week.

The researchers, led by Dr Jean-Bernard Ruidavets from Toulouse University, investigated whether drinking patterns in Northern Ireland and France were linked to the known disparity in heart disease between these two culturally diverse countries.

In the study, binge drinking was defined as drinking more than 4- 5 drinks over a short period, where a drink equates to a 125ml glass of wine or half pint of beer.

Over a ten year period, Ruidavets and colleagues assessed the alcohol consumption of 9,758 men from three centres in France (Lille, Strasbourg and Toulouse) and Belfast. The participants were free from heart disease when the research started in 1991 and were between the ages of 50 to 59.

The participants were divided into never drinkers, former drinkers, regular drinkers and binge drinkers. The ‘drinkers’ were asked via interviews and questionnaires about the volume of alcohol they consumed on a weekly and daily basis and also about the type of beverage.

The results show that the men who “binge” drink had nearly twice the risk of heart attack or death from heart disease compared to regular drinkers over the 10 years of follow up.

The researchers write: “the prevalence of binge drinking, which doubled the risk of ischaemic heart disease compared with regular drinking, was almost 20 times higher in Belfast than in the French centres.”

The drink of choice in both countries may also play a role; beer and spirits are most commonly consumed in Northern Ireland, with wine being France’s preferred tipple. Established research has concluded that drinking a moderate about of wine can protect against heart disease.

Ruidavets and colleagues conclude that the research has important public health implications, especially given that binge drinking is on the rise amongst younger people in Mediterranean countries.

They say: “The alcohol industry takes every opportunity to imbue alcohol consumption with the positive image, emphasising its beneficial effects on ischaemic heart disease risk, but people also need to be informed about the health consequences of heavy drinking.”

Read the full paper below;
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/doi/10.1136/bmj.c6077

Beer raises prostate cancer risk

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Sydney: Just one pint of beer daily raises prostate cancer risk, according to Australian researchers.

They found two or more drinks a day increased the likelihood of developing the disease by 20 per cent – well below most healthy drinking guidelines.

Scientists at Curtin University in Australia say their review of 35 studies looking at the relationship between drinking levels and the risk of prostate cancer, was large enough to confirm a link.

At the same time moderate drinking in older men is thought to offer protection from heart disease.

The review, published in the journal of Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, included all studies published in or before 2006.

It reveals that heavier drinkers, which is judged at 14 or more drinks weekly, are about 20 per cent more likely to develop prostate cancer.

Gastromonic nirvana at the Real Food Festival

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Learn about how Trappist monasteries produce beer, sample rare European cured meats, including prosciutto from the Lombardian Alps in the far north of Italy. Try speciality sausage from the province of Ragusa in Sicily. Explore honey-based beverages, such as traditional aged Polish mead made from honey and sweet Ethiopian honey beer and more at the Real Food Festival in London this April.

Challenge the senses with Scotland’s best cask aged whiskies under the guidance of whisky expert Peter Gibson and meet the Chedderman, Tom Calver of Westcombe Dairy in Somerset, to hear about how his farm is protecting its farming heritage and the traditional methods of cheese production. Come along to a delicious magazine Taste Workshop at the Real Food Festival at London’s Earls Court 24-27 April.

Real Food will showcase hundreds of the most passionate producers that have been handpicked by a careful Selection Committee and subsidised to be there. One of the major highlights of the festival will be delicious magazine Taste Workshops, created by eco-gastronomes Clodagh McKenna and Sebastiano Sardo from Foodiscovery, where you can meet producers personally and take part in tutored tastings which will leave your toes tingling! There will be over 85 different delicious magazine Taste Workshops at the festival which have been categorised into distinct groups including: Meet the Producer, Discover Europe, Undiscovered Food and Gastronomic Nirvana.

Meet the Producer:

Meet the Producer workshops will include British cheese makers speaking of the challenges of producing raw milk cheese in a pasteurized world, Italian winemakers speaking of the impact of the climate and geography of their territorio on their product’s flavours and British farmers presenting sustainably-produced meat from heritage breeds.

Highlights will include:

Patchwork PatésThe Incredible Success of Patchwork Patés featuring Margaret Carter: In 1982, Margaret Carter, divorced with three children to raise, began making paté in her kitchen. Her start up costs were £9.00. Today, Patchwork produces eight award winning patés and is one of the UK’s top paté producers. Despite the commercial success the patés are still hand made using Margaret’s original recipes with no additives or preservatives. Come and meet Margaret Carter and hear the story of how she made it happen.

The Cocoa Farm – Meet the Chocolate Lovers. The Cocoa Farm (the only one in Australia) is run by a group of people so passionate about truly great chocolate they grow their own cocoa beans and make it themselves. They are obsessed with sourcing only the finest ingredients and treat them gently, interfering in the process as little as possible.

Discover Europe:This gastronomic tour of farmers, growers and artisan producers will take us from the tip of Italy to the temperate South of Sweden, sampling and learning about the best of artisans’ regional produce. Discover Europe workshops include:

Portuguese Sheep-milk cheeses paired with aged Port: The Iberian peninsula is noted for producing some of the world’s greatest sheep’s milk cheeses and the Portuguese gourmet cheeses can certainly hold their own with their Spanish cousins. Come and try the salty, fruity Quieijo de Evora, matured for at least sixty days; the strong earthy Azeitao, or the semi hard Queijo de Nisa which uses thistle flower for coagulation. These Portuguese greats will be paired with aged Port wines from the Douro’s best vintners.

Undiscovered Foods: The aim of this workshop is to turn the spotlight on food, sourced from all over Europe which is rarely found outside the region it is produced in. Sampling and discussing products as diverse as Hebriddean cheeses, rare breed air dried beef, small independent wine producers, honey made from bees kept on London roof tops or smoked tuna from Connemara. Undiscovered Foods workshops will include:

California Charcuterie & Artisan Beers: The New World’s Mediterranean – the long Pacific coast stretching along California into Mexico – is home to a climate that favours fruit trees and vegetable crops originating in Southern Europe. Today, Northern California is also proving to be a favourable climate for some of the artisan foodways native to Europe.

Gastronomic NirvanaIn Gastronomic Nirvana workshops we’ll attempt to define how and why certain foods have earned the gourmand’s devotion and gold plated reputations: a teaspoon of the purest caviar followed by a mouthful of melting crème fraiche, aged Spanish Iberico ham made from acorn-fed pork, or a crumbling shard of 3-year old Grana Padano cheese with a chaser of 25 year aged Aceto Balsamico di Modena. Gastronomic Nirvana workshops include:

The Ultimate Cure: an opportunity to taste two of the finest cured meats in the world, Culatello and Iberico ham. You will hear the history of these two great cured meats and learn about the traditional methods of production. Iberico ham, from Northern Spain, has a nutty flavour from the acorns the black pigs are fed on and Culatello, from the Po valley in Italy, is a sweet, intense and clean tasting ham.

Oyster Haven: In this workshop we compare the flavours of the finest French oysters; flavourful Belon oysters from Brittany; Marennes from the Charentais coast and Fines De Claire so called for their incredible clarity. The oysters will be coupled with expertly chosen champagnes or chilled Muscadet. This will be a day of pure indulgence for any serious gastronome …or seducer.

To find out more information on the Real Food Festival or to purchase tickets please call our hotline 0870 912 0831 or visit www.realfoodfestival.co.uk

The Real Food Festival is unique because:

A Selection Committee chaired by Lyndon Gee, former director of Slow Food UK, will select producers to ensure a high degree of integrity and quality for the event.
Small producers are being subsidised to participate, offering them a real opportunity to grow and develop their business thanks to our generous sustainers which include Whole Foods Market, Tyrells, Grana Padano and Daylesford Organics.

The festival will showcase hundreds of producers that have never been seen before at any large scale food and drink event, offering an unprecedented variety of great quality produce that has made the grade in terms of taste, provenance and sustainability.
The Real Food Festival is both a trade and consumer event, giving stakeholders the chance to reach both audiences.
Many of the producers will have not been seen before making Real Food a festival of discovery celebrating provenance, sustainability, quality and integrity in food and food producers.

The visitor experience will include:

The Food Market – the biggest Farmers Market the UK’s ever seen. The Wine Fair – Over 100 small producers of quality wines will be selected to offer their wines for tasting and to buy. Delicious magazine Taste Workshops – created by Clodagh McKenna and Sebastiano Sardo from Food Discovery, you can meet the producer personally and have tutored tastings on the things you love or always wanted to try. Cookery School – Our sustainable food guru, Barny Haughton, from Bordeaux Quay, Bristol, will be running a Cookery School where you can learn to make the simplest things like a loaf of bread. Chefs’ Theatre – The Chefs’ Theatre will stimulate the taste buds with presentations from some of the UK’s top chefs using seasonal and fresh produce to prepare regional dishes. Restaurants – A small selection of the UK’s most exciting and forward-thinking restaurants will serve signature dishes. Gala Night – A high profile Gala launch night will be organised for Thursday evening, 24 April 2008. Dinner Dates – Why stop at the event? Head to one of London’s Dinner Date restaurants and eat from a menu specially prepared for the Real Food Festival.

UK Government reviews health guidelines for alcohol

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London: ONE in four women in the UK is drinking more than is recommended following a Government revision of the alcohol unit system.

The new guidelines have been issued because many drinks and particularly wine are higher now in alcohol than at the time the unit rules were created.

According to the UK Government’s Office of National Statistics, a glass of wine which is officially classified as one unit should now be counted as two.

The Government has highlighted the problem with wine because it forms, on average, 40% of a women’s intake of alcohol. This compares to less than 20 percent for a man.

It is estimated that about 14 percent of women, aged between 14 and retirement age, are drinking too many units because they are calculating using the old method. Using the new method this dramatically increased to 25 per cent.

Manyof those drinking too much as high income earners and professionals. An average senior female manager in a large company is now drinking 15.2 units of alcohol a week.

Among men, a third over the age of 25 are now thought to be drinking more than Health Department recommended safe levels of 21 units a week.

The new rules replace those created in 1978 which have been outdated by bars serving ever larger glasses of wine with ever higher alcohol levels.

Pub wine glasses used to hold 125 millilitres, but now many serve 175 or 250 are common. In addition, thirty years ago many wines only had nine per cent alcohol. Today’s many wines are 14 per cent and even higher. Many beers and lagers have also increased in strength in recent years.

Beer helps after exercise hydration

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Granada: Beer is better at hydrating the body after exercise than just water, according to new research from Granada University in Spain.

The scientists believe that the sugars, salts and carbon dioxide may be responsible.

The study looked at 25 students over a period of several months. They were asked to run on a treadmill in temperatures of 40C (104F).

Once they were on the point of giving up, researchers measured their hydration levels, concentrationability and motor skills. Half were then given two half pints of Spanish lager to drink, while the rest were given water. Both groups were then allowed to drink as much water as they wanted. The rehydration effect in the students who were given beer was ‘slightly better’ than among those given only water.

Based on the studies, the researchers have recommended moderate consumption of beer – 500ml a day for men or 250ml for women – as part of an athlete’s diet.

The ingredients of beer – which include malted barley, hops and yeast – are rich sources of vitamins and minerals.

Brewer’s yeast acne cure

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London: Brewer’s yeast, which is used to make beer, is the active ingredient in a new spot buster that works on acne.

The skin benefits of beer sediment (brewer’s yeast) were discovered in ancient Egypt over 4,000 years ago. But more recently two studies have confirmed that brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces cereviseae) can help maintain a balanced pH level in the skin, help ease sebum blockages and combat bacteria that causes acne.

Acne is caused by an over-production of sebum, which is often the result hormonal disruptions such as puberty, monthly menstruation, pregnancy or menopause, even stress can marginally alter hormonal balances in the body and lead to increased sebum production.

Acne is generally caused when the sebum reaches the surface of the skin and thickens as it comes into contact with oxygen, leading to pore blockages which, if left unblocked, can lead to bacterial infection and inflammation (spots).

Brewer’s yeast is made up of unicellular micro-organisms which are a type of fungus that cultivate on the skin’s surface, warding off bacteria and keeping a healthy pH balance. These tiny organisms multiply quickly, meaning when applied to the skin they soon ‘populate’ the skin’s surface leaving no opportunity bad bacteria to take hold.

Skin Shop’s new Anti-Acne Yeast Masque contains active young brewer’s yeast cells, which multiply even faster than normal yeast cells, so the masque begins cultivating quickly on your skin as soon as it is applied.

Two German studies have found that topically applied young brewer’s yeast cells can help improve the appearance of acne.

The first, carried out in 1989 by Weber G, Adamczyk and A, Freytag S and published on PubMed was a randomized, controlled double-blind study involving 139 patients with various forms of acne. The effectiveness and tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was studied in comparison with a placebo over a maximum period of five months. The results of therapy were assessed by the physician as very good/good in 74.3% of the patients receiving the preparation, as compared with 21.7% in the placebo group. In more than 80% of the former patients, the condition was considered to be healed or considerably improved, while the corresponding figure for the placebo group was only 26%.

The second study, carried out in May 2006 at Munich University as part of a trial on a commercial skin preparation containing young brewer’s yeast cells, found that after three weeks of applying a yeast-based cream to acne sufferer’s skin, that their skin improved significantly.

The Anti-Acne Yeast Masque should be applied to the skin once a day (preferably before bed) and left on for approximately 15 minutes, then washed off with clean warm water. For maximum effects no other skin care products should be applied for 6-8 hours use.

Skin Shop’s Anti-Acne Face Masque is made from all naturally active ingredients and free from SLS and parabens.

Skin Shop’s Anti-< ahref=http://www.skinshop.co.uk">www.skinshop.co.ukor call (from the UK) : 0871 871 9975

Less educated women binge drink when they are older

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London: Well-educated young women are more likely to binge drink, says a new study from the UK’s Institute of Child Health.

It also found that women who have children early and have fewer qualifications tend to take up drinking heavily in their 40s.

They concluded that the difference in drinking habits was down to having children. Older women without qualifications were twice as likely to binge drink – that it consume ten or more units of alcohol at any one time – than their better educated counterparts.

The habits of 11,500 British men and women born during one week in March 1958 were monitored on how much they drank. They were monitored and surveyed about how much and how often they drank at the ages of 23, 33 and 42.

The beer drinkers diet

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Columbia: The Beer Drinker’s Diet book, published by Amazon.com’s Booksurge, is gaining followers devoted to the author’s methods of losing weight while responsibly enjoying alcoholic beverages.

At first glance, the title “The Beer Drinker’s Diet” may appear to be a comedy book, but glancing through a few pages of Bradley Scott Cailor’s new book, you quickly realize that this is a very serious book for the thousands of people who want to lose weight, while enjoying life.

In an interview with Mr. Cailor, we asked why one should read the book and what makes it so different than others he replied:

“Most weight-loss books said that I could not drink beer while on a ‘diet.’ With this disparaging premise in mind, I have steadfastly tried to get around this issue by trying literally every ‘diet’ and ‘diet pill’ imaginable over the course of 25 years. Frustrated by gimmicky diets, dangerous pills, and senseless diet books, I was so tired of failure that I had to take matters into my own hands in a monumental quest to find what diet plan truly works.”

“In a common-sense manner, this book summarizes every proven principle from literally every diet plan and book into one complete and thoroughly tested guide that has been proven to work by real people. It is passionately written by an “actual writer” from the unique perspective of ‘one regular person to another,’ as I have been there, too!”

Cailor’s book is an interesting and motivating read. His techniques transformed his body, losing over 110 pounds of fat and flab.

New York Times best-selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh commented: “For anyone seeking a health program that really works, The Beer Drinker’s Diet is a motivating and significant book.”

The Columbus Dispatch stated: “The author also shows you step-by-step & pound-by-pound how he lost 114 pounds of fat while enjoying life…he even analyzes-in great detail-why each of his previous 25 years of diet attempts failed! We learn from his real-life trial & error why “miracle pills” and “fad diets” do NOT work …the author has tested all of these gimmicks, diets and pills for us. No Other Diet Book Does This! Beer is his symbol for any favorite food or drink that must be embraced to diet successfully.”

Mr. Cailor’s website www.TheBeerDrinkersDiet.com contains testimonials and reviews of his book, which is surely to gain a huge following as it’s notice and popularity rises.
The Beer Drinker’s Diet is on sale through Amazon.com and offers a 100% guarantee, something seldom seen with book publishers.

Bradley ended the interview with, “Enjoy beer, enjoy life, it all works on this diet, as you really won’t be using this dirty little four-letter word ever again.”

About the author:
Bradley Scott Cailor is a resident of Dublin, Ohio, has a degree in health education and has served many years as a personal trainer.

Beer may contain anti-cancer compound

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Oregon:Most beers contain a unique compound which inhibit cancer causing enzymes.

Scientists at Oregon State University say the substance found in hops called xanthohumol can help the body detoxify carcinogens and inhibit tumour growth. It also appears to be a powerful antioxidant with the ability to reduce bad cholesterol.

Most beers are low in hops, except for porters, ales and stouts. As a result a ‘health beer’ with enhanced levels of the compound is being developed. ‘

Fred Stevens, one of the Oregon researchers said that they could not definitively say that beer prevented cancer.

But he added: ‘Most beer has low levels of this compound, and its absorption in the body is limited. We need to discover how to increase the levels or use it as a nutritional supplement.’