It's All About the Beer, Buddy

G'day all! How are you all? I hope you are well, and not nursing an amber fluid hangover...

Speaking of which, this is going to be part of my blog today. The "pro's and con's" of drinking the amber fluid, and maybe some helpful hints, some good remedies and some awful wives tales that we may have heard.

So, are there really any pro's about beer?

Well, yes. Absolutely.

I've discussed on one of my earlier pages that beer does help with a lot of things. It gives confidence (no-brainer!), it helps with heart conditions (or has been heard to!) and there is just a good taste to be had. 

I'll just quickly go over these again...

1 - it's great for heart disease

2 - makes your creativity come out and may help with solving problems

3 - it can prevent type 2 diabetes

4 - kind to your kidneys

5 - hydrates better than water after a workout

6 - confidence boost

7 - stout is known to make your eyesight better (no - not beer goggles!)

8 - lowers your blood pressure

9 - fights off infection

10 - may actually strengthen your bones.

BEERS!!!

Now let's have a quick look at the "con's", of not just beer, but it's main ingredient - alcohol.

1. Alcohol is known to establish and is linked to weight gain. Especially beer. Hence the term "beer belly" which, to all the male folk out there, a fair call. I mean, I remember my dad and grandfather fit and healthy. But after coming home after a long trip up north to the Kimberley or the Pilbara in far north Western Australia, my grandfather's stomach was getting larger. And finally when he retired, he did have what I thought was a beer belly. He did love his Emu Export and Swan Gold (Swan Gold is no longer made though - *sniff*). A bottle of beer has roughly about 150 calories to every bottle - roughly about 350ml. But being cheaper than wine or spirits, we drink it much more. It is the third highest liquid that we intake, after water and tea. Beer also has another side effect. Appetite. How many times have you ordered out for pizza after drinking, or gone for a kebab after a good dose of beer on a night out? This can cause the metabolization of food, and then the food can just turn into extra fat.

2. Alcohol can trigger negative things. Anxiety, mental disorders, abuse, aggression, depression and other such emotions, actions or feelings. It is known also to create new ones after over consumption, and caused disturbed sleep and impaired gross motor development - which comes from when females drink during pregnancy.

3. Alcohol is very well known to cause serious bodily harm and death. Drink driving, drunkenness, and other such things have had a devastating effect on many people's lives. We all know someone, or we know someone who's had someone in their lives taken from us, because of this. I've had a few mates taken from this earth because of drink driving. I also know and have heard of hundreds upon thousands of victims, not just in Australia or the United Kingdom and the United States, but the entire planet. And there is advertising and marketing everywhere to try and curb this relation. But some people just don't get it, or just don't care. And some people learn the very hard way. Let's just hope this slows down. It's a high hope in hell, but it is still hope.

4. Consuming alcohol has been found to attract mosquitoes, and mosquitoes transfer diseases. Beer drinkers have an increased risk for bites and exposure to mosquito borne illnesses like malaria and dengue fever. Over consumption also results in liver disease, and scarring of the liver. Beer contains ethanol too. which makes the liver create a carcinogen called acetaldehyde, which is associated with oral, gastric and breast cancer.

5. Dehydration. This is an absolute no-brainer. How many times have you woken up after drinking beer the night before, just dying for water? We have a natural antidiuretic hormone produced by our bodies. What beer does, it messes with this hormone, hence the often visits to the bathroom/toilet, releasing way too much water, so the body becomes dehydrated.

6. Gluten - most beers contain barley, and barley contains gluten. There are a large amount of people out there that are gluten intolerant. An extreme version of this is celiac disease, which makes the body attack the lining of the intestine (smaller). Thanks to the growing awareness of gluten free food and drink vendors, there are beers that are gluten free.

7. Lowers your blood sugar. Beer, can contribute to weight gain (as above) by interfering with blood sugar levels. Beer can stop your liver from converting our natural body sugars (glycogen) to glucose, which our liver releases it into our blood. Your blood sugar drops, your brain thinks you're hungry, and you keep eating, when you don't need to.

Now these 7 reasons, are big reasons why beer is not good for you. But beer is something that you should always drink in moderation (and so is ANY alcoholic drink!), so as the ads say...'

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY 

And well. Enjoy your beer. Don't chug it down (too much!) or you'll really miss the reason us mere mortals drink beer in the first place! THE TASTE!!!

Now... I'll delve into the world of the hangover CURE...
I'm sure that we've all heard of, or have, our own way of preventing a hangover or "curing" one. So let's have a look at some that I've heard about, know about, and done myself!

Okay - here goes.

1. Line your stomach - well that's a smart way of doing things - thinking ahead - you'll go far mate! This has been known to slow down the rate of absorption into the stomach. A good thing to take into account.

2. Drink loads of water - drink a glass of water between every drink, you'll wake up and feel great. But, if you have had a LOT to drink, drinking water when waking up is only going to greaten the amount of liquid that the alcohol is in. Making you go more times to the toilet, and more dehydrated in the end.

3. Stock up on supplies - Painkillers (obviously) and the replacement of lost salts. Ibuprofen for your headaches (or aspirin) and lucozade or isotonic drinks that help replace what you've lost.

4. Berocca or Hairy Lemon - replacement capsules that you dissolve in water (water being the important part). Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't

5. The greasy breakfast - well, did you have that kebab on the way home? Did you eat pizza last night? If not, this is well known to help with a hangover, and depending on who you are, it may help. If I haven't eaten my kebab or pizza, a good ol' bacon and egg sandwich with barbecue sauce really does the trick for me. I swear by this one. But everyone is different, so try your own creation

6. Keep healthy. If you exercise most days, then you may have a healthy tolerance for the hangover. But I know athletes that are a "Cadbury Kid" (glass'n' a half), and they still wake up with a killer hangover. It really depends on how much you drink

7. Don't dance too much - "COME ON!!!" I can hear you cry - "this is when I pull out the killer moves!". But it does make sense. If you move too much, you'll dehydrate faster. But who doesn't want to dance when their tipsy?

8. Avoid mixing drinks, and with beer, that's a number one thing that some people shouldn't do. Once you change your poison, there's a pretty good chance you're gonna wake up with a killer hangover.

and now some unusual, and interesting cures...

9. Keep drinking - or "Hair of the Dog" - of course - if you keep drinking, you won't have a hangover - but this can be unhealthy for you, and others

10. Berocca (or Hairy Lemon/Alkaseltzer) with half a glass of orange juice, and lemonade. I've used this one, and it has worked.

11. Beer and cereal for breakfast - yes, this is an unusual combination, but I had beer and nutri grain once, and it must have been the malt in the cereal, but this one worked a treat. But, remember - everyone is different.

12. Sauna - now this one I'm not sure I'm going to try - I'd be dehydrated already - why try that? But apparently it works for some!

Now... some weird and wonderful ways people in different times and countries that have had hangover cures...

13. Rub a lemon in the armpit of your drinking arm - Puerto Rico

14. Deep fry and eat a canary - Ancient Rome

15. Drink Buffalo Milk - Namibia

16. Eating a pickled plum or apricot - Japan

17. Eat a raw, pickled herring wrapped around a piece of gherkin and onion - Germany

18. A bowl of thick cut french fries with chunks of Canadian cheese curd, smothered in savory gravy with fresh peppercorns - Canada 

19. Pizzle - Three words - Dried. Bull. Penis - Sicily

20. 13 black headed pins into the cork of the bottle that gave them the hangover - Haiti

21. A breakfast of sheep lungs and two owl eggs. - Ancient Greece

22. Bury yourself up to the neck in river sand - Ireland

23. Grind rhino horn into hot water and drink it - Vietnam

24. Pellet Tea - a tea made of rabbit droppings - U.S.A.

25. Two pickles eyeballs from a sheep - Mongolia

26. Raw eggs - Australia

27. Tripe soup (intestine soup!) - Turkey

28. Prairie Oyster - tomato juice with one raw egg, worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, tabasco sauce

29. Balut - Poached fertilized duck embryo; and finally

30. Sparrow droppings in Brandy - Hungary.

That comes to the end of this entry into my blog. If you have any other points to mention about the bad and good things about beer, or have a great hangover cure, please put them in the comments section below, and I'll publish them on a future blog! :)
Next time we will be reviewing another beer!

Until next time...

Cheers!

Beer Bud