Talk about your dbl edged sword..Bound for hell because you drank and woke up feeling like you are already there because of it....
Years ago I knew a doctor, a cardiologist, who told me that there was emerging information that red wine in
reasonable moderation (not austere moderation!) was terrific for your heart, that the massive Framingham Heart Study, probably the broadest and deepest longitudinal medical study of all time, was pointing clearly in this direction, and many other things which were music to mine ears. Since then everything he's been talking about have become well known, and amply confirmed; even somewhat killjoy outfits like the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (I love them and the stuff in their newsletter
Nutrition Action is great, it's just that they can be a little puritanical in tone, sometimes) are grudgingly admitting that the health benefits are real and not just the product of a well-organized marketing campain run jointly by Napa Valley wineries and the government of France. Now I'm beginning to hear similar things about beer...
My understanding of the health story on beer includes the interesting claim that during the Middle Ages, ales were the chief sources of a number of trace minerals and nutrients for the vast majority of the population who were not particularly well off, and was the one sure way to make water drinkable (`fresh' water was contaminated by so many nasty microbes that you were much more likely to die of cholera by drinking water than die of liver trouble from drinking beer). And one of the longest-lived populations in the world is on Sardinia—they have a record number of centenarians, apparently—which also has a thriving local wine economy...
So on due consideration, Drac, I do believe I'll have another—you joining me? My treat...
