
Beer Before Wine or Wine Before Beer? European researchers have bad news for the 76% of Americans who experience hangovers after a drinking session: Try as you may to change up the order of your alcoholic beverages, if you drink too much, you will still be hungover. Determined to find a way to help people have a better day after a night out, the researchers recruited 90 brave souls in Germany between the ages of 19 and 40 to drink beer, wine or both. One group drank 2½ pints of beer, followed by four large glasses of wine. The second group rank the four glasses of wine first, then the 2½ pints of beer. A third group drank only beer or only wine. Everyone was kept under medical supervision overnight. The researchers then let the alcohol wash out and people recover, and a week later they brought everybody back for a second day of drinking. This time, people drank in the reverse order: Those who had started with beer on the first day were given wine this time, those who had started with wine were given beer first, and those who had drunk only beer were given wine and vice versa.. The results, were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,. They show no difference in the intensity of the hangover brought on by drinking wine first followed by beer or the other way around proving there is no truth in the idea that drinking beer before wine gives you a milder hangover than the other way around Two factors did seem to predict the severity of symptoms the day after: how drunk people felt while they were drinking and whether they vomited. The people who scored themselves higher on the 1 to 10 how-drunk-are-you scale at the end of the night and those who threw up at any point were the ones most likely to rate their hangover as severe. The researchers acknowledged limitations to their study. For example, they couldn't assign a control group to drink beer or wine without alcohol, as the participants in an alcohol study were not interested in being in a non-alcoholic group. And although they didn't find a way to drink that would help people feel better the day after, the researchers say hangovers are not always bad. . "Unpleasant as hangovers are, we should remember that they do have one important benefit, at least: they are a protective warning sign that will certainly have aided humans over the ages to change their future behavior," said Dr. Kai Hensel, a clinical fellow at the University of Cambridge and author of the study, in a statement. "In other words, they can help us learn from our mistakes." |
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Corn Syrup Beer The Bud Light new ads are meant to shame competitors for brewing their beer with corn syrup has angered corn producers, prompted MillerCoors to buy a full-page New York Times ad defending its use of the ingredient and given consumers a crash course in the chemistry of beer.Despite the backlash, the ad may have its intended effect of driving people away from Bud Light’s competition.“Whether (corn syrup) is bad or not doesn’t really matter,” said Tim Calkins, clinical professor of marketing at Northwestern University’.“The issue is, do people think it’s bad” Chicago-based MillerCoors clarified that it does not use high-fructose corn syrup – a type of sweetener that has been shown to have negative health effects – and that its beers have fewer calories and carbohydrates than Bud Light. Corn syrup is one of many types of non-malt ingredients often used in beer to create alcohol without adding much flavor. When it or any other type of sugar gets fermented, it gets converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide, so “sugar added to beer does not mean sugar in the finished beer. Bud also responded to the criticism from the corn industry by having Pete Coors personally deliver a truckload of Miller Lite and Coors Light to a meeting of the National Corn Growers Assoc. |

Australian Heat Wave = Free Beer Record-breaking temperatures in Australia where it's now summer, have seen an Adelaide pub become the most praised in Australia, making good on its promise to give away free beer if the temperature hit 45C. The Red Lion Hotel in Elizabeth North started its “beer-o-meter” last month but the heat of the past few weeks has really tested their promise - above 40C, the price of beer at the Red Lion drops to $3. Above 42C and the beer is $1. Over 45C and it’s free. For the last several weeks the city’s broke heat records reaching 46.2C, the hottest since records began.nd the thirsty locals were ready. People have lined around the block, waiting for the price of beer to drop to zero as the temperature climbed. One day they had run out of glasses and were serving schooners. It’s the customer’s choice of beer on tap, too — only Stella is off the menu. “If it gets over 42C, it’s $1 a pint. That’s still a good deal. I don’t know of any other pubs that are doing $1 pints,” Mr Firth the owner said. Temperature is measured by the Bureau of Meteorology reading at Edinburgh — the closest gauge to the pub.“If it goes over 45C for 10 minutes, then it’s free beer for 10 minutes,” Mr Firth said. |