Another study on alcohol

[Calm]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/03/31/moderate-drinking-alcohol-wine-risks/
 

Mentions a large majority of studies on health benefits were funded by the alcohol industry, so less surprising that moderate drinking was purported to be healthy for so long….

Quote

The belief that daily alcohol consumption is good for you dates to the 1980s, when researchers identified the “French paradox” — the suggestion that low rates of cardiovascular disease among men in France was associated with daily wine consumption. Although later analyses found flaws in the research, the belief that moderate drinking improved health became widely accepted. Much of the research into the health effects of alcohol has been funded by the alcohol industry. One recent report found that 13,500 studies have been directly or indirectly paid for by the industry.

“It’s often been thought that wine is something special, that alcohol in wine somehow has magic properties,” said lead author Tim Stockwell, a professor of psychology at the University of Victoria. “It was just a publicity coup for the wine industry three decades ago. The role of alcohol in wine as protective is now disputed, and the evidence doesn’t hold up.”…

The new review, called a “meta-analysis,” looked at 107 observational studies that involved more than 4.8 million people. The study stressed that previous estimates of the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption on the risk of death by “all causes” — meaning anything, including heart disease, cancer, infections and automobile accidents — were “significantly” biased by flaws in study design.

Earlier research did not adjust for numerous factors that could influence the outcome, for example, age, sex, economic status and lifestyle behaviors such as exercise, smoking and diet, they said. Using statistical software, the researchers essentially removed the bias, adjusting for various factors that could skew the research. After doing so, they found no significant declines in the risk of death by any causes among the moderate drinkers.

“We concluded these were bad studies,” said Stockwell, a former director of the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. “There wasn’t a single perfect study in there. They were open to bias in so many ways.”

I want to see sugar and alcohol go head to head in terms of mild, moderate and heavy use, lol, and see which is worse.

Is there a typical food or dining pleasure yet that could be indulged in significantly and wouldn’t cause harm?  I love fruit as my candy, but every now and then I want something substantial and even allulose just doesn’t quite fill that sweetness craving when used in cookies.

Milk has even moved to the rare list as lactaid doesn’t seem to help much as my digestion gets more finicky with age, so custard isn’t an option….plus while I love custard, I want something to chew…like cream puffs.

Edited April 1 by Calm

[MustardSeed]

7 minutes ago, Calm said:

want to see sugar and alcohol go head to head in terms of mild, moderate and heavy use, lol.

Don’t take away my sugar.  You’ll have to rip it from my cold, dead hands.☠️

In all seriousness, I think it’s rather hypocritical of us not to consider the damage that sugar does to our temples. I just don’t wanna know about it today. I have conference cinnamon rolls to bake and I loaded up with every kind of soda imaginable. We have lots of guests coming. This is how we party.

Edited April 1 by MustardSeed

[Calm]

I have gotten to the point I can’t stand heavy sweet sodas, I love the kind that have light sweetness, lots of flavour, and a good bite, whether heavy with ginger or a touch of cayenne pepper.

Allulose is getting pretty close to sugar, I think if I was able to use real salt, it might be a lot closer to satisfying.  The sugar substitutes are getting better and better, I would not be surprised if in 20 years we had a perfect substitute. But perhaps not, it seems the body is very capable of noticing slight differences…which really annoys me with salt.

I am really surprised given the reaction to fat…which is now being walked back, there hasn’t been a bigger public/corporate jumping on the bandwagon push to drop sugar and salt.

Edited April 1 by Calm

[MustardSeed]

Substitutes frighten me because they haven’t been around long enough. I finally found a gum that has low sugar and none of that nasty xylitol stuff. It has just enough mint to satisfy.

 

[Pyreaux]

33 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

Don’t take away my sugar.  You’ll have to rip it from my cold, dead hands.☠️

In all seriousness, I think it’s rather hypocritical of us not to consider the damage that sugar does to our temples. I just don’t wanna know about it today. I have conference cinnamon rolls to bake and I loaded up with every kind of soda imaginable. We have lots of guests coming. This is how we party.

Okay, Edger

[Smiley McGee]

Currently reading The History of the World in Six Glasses. Fun little tidbit: Greeks and Romans diluted wine with water (2:1 or 3:1 water to wine) and considered undiluted wine barbaric. Since the ABV of wine has a natural upper limit of around 15%, Greek and Roman wine, as prepared, had about as much alcohol as a mild barley drink . 

 

 

[Pyreaux]

 

2 hours ago, Calm said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/03/31/moderate-drinking-alcohol-wine-risks/
 

Mentions a large majority of studies on health benefits were funded by the alcohol industry, so less surprising that moderate drinking was purported to be healthy for so long….

I want to see sugar and alcohol go head to head in terms of mild, moderate and heavy use, lol, and see which is worse.

Is there a typical food or dining pleasure yet that could be indulged in significantly and wouldn’t cause harm?  I love fruit as my candy, but every now and then I want something substantial and even allulose just doesn’t quite fill that sweetness craving when used in cookies.

Milk has even moved to the rare list as lactaid doesn’t seem to help much as my digestion gets more finicky with age, so custard isn’t an option….plus while I love custard, I want something to chew…like cream puffs.

Its fresh grape juice enzymes that are healthy, pasteurizing grape juice removes those healthy enzymes, and to make wine it cannot be pasteurized, so wine has the enzymes, so there is nothing special about alcohol. Eat grapes. And it's the pasteurization of milk that causes lactose intolerance in most people.

Edited April 1 by Pyreaux

[Tacenda]

I found a really good recipe that doesn't have flour or sugar and it has helped my cravings a long with my prediabetic husband. I've gone from Oreos and Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip cookies ( a couple of favorites) to a four ingredient bar. 1. Bananas 2. all natural peanut butter 3. oats 4. dark chocolate chips, oops, a fifth ingredient can be added, and I did with my last batch, a little honey. And this has helped so much and kept me from buying the other.

I do believe for many ailments, eliminating as much sugar as possible is a good thing, and that sugar is in so many things, such as sauces, especially ketchup and barbecue sauce. And I love that I haven't had to use flour because that's a big culprit. But it took my husband's pre-diabetes to finally get serious about the food we eat.  

[Calm]

I like almond butter better than peanuts.  You can get fresh ground at health food stores if you don’t want to do it yourself.

I can’t eat chocolate…which was not that big of a deal since a lot of American chocolate is horrendous.  Got spoiled in Russia (German chocolate) and Canadian isn’t as good as German, but better than American.

Edited April 1 by Calm

[katherine the great]

On 3/31/2023 at 10:18 PM, Pyreaux said:

 

And it's the pasteurization of milk that causes lactose intolerance in most people.

Sorry but this is simply false. 

[Calm]

43 minutes ago, katherine the great said:

Sorry but this is simply false. 

Quote

Lactose is a unique disaccharide found in milk. Lactose concentration in bovine milk is about 4.8%. People with lactose intolerance lack the enzyme, beta-galactosidase or lactase, to break down lactose into glucose and galactose during digestion. All milk, raw or pasteurized, contains lactose and can cause lactose intolerance in sensitive individuals. There is no indigenous lactase in milk.

Raw milk advocates claim that raw milk does not cause lactose intolerance because it contains lactase secreted by “beneficial” or probiotic bacteria present in raw milk. As discussed in a later section (claim 4), raw milk does not contain probiotic organisms.

https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/raw-milk-misconceptions-and-danger-raw-milk-consumption

Drink kefir or eat yogurt.

Quote

Fermented dairy products, especially yogurt, have been reported to ease lactose mal-absorption in lactose intolerant subjects (McBean and Miller, 1984; Lin et al., 1991; Onwulata et al., 1989; Savaiano et al., 1984). This enhanced digestion of lactose has been attributed to the intra-intestinal hydrolysis of lactose by lactase secreted by yogurt fermentation microorganisms (Lin et al., 1991; Savaiano et al., 1984). However, raw milk does not contain the same types of microorganisms at the similar levels that are found in yogurt. Yogurt that showed a benefit towards lactose intolerance typically contained 107cfu/ml or higher levels of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and these microorganisms were purposely inoculated during yogurt manufacturing (Lin et al., 1991; Savaiano et al., 1984).

 

Edited April 4 by Calm

[Pyreaux]

Alright, fine, let's all trust the government.

[Calm]

1 hour ago, Pyreaux said:

Alright, fine, let's all trust the government.

It is basic chemistry.  Raw milk may or may not help with other digestive issues (I love raw goat milk and it feels good in my stomach; need to check with my neighbour if she still does that now bovine milk isn’t an option as much), but lactase needs to be present in order to digest lactose.

Edited April 4 by Calm

[Calm]

A different, nongovernment source:

https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/raw-milk-claim-is-udderly-untrue/
 

Quote

However, experts told AAP FactCheck there was either no lactase in raw milk or minute traces that would not aid digestion at all.

Dr Evangeline Mantzioris, program director of the nutrition and food sciences degree at the University of South Australia, said the video’s suggestion that lactase is destroyed during the pasteurisation process is false. “Milk doesn’t contain lactase, we make lactase,” she explained.

“Lactose is the sugar that’s in milk, and normally, some people can’t break it down, and that’s because they lack the enzyme called lactase,” she said in an email.

“If you can’t break down the lactose, it doesn’t get absorbed into your bloodstream and stays in your intestines. Because the concentration of sugar is higher in your intestine, your body draws out fluid from the intestinal cells, and it goes into the gut, and people get diarrhoea.

“The lactase is produced in your small intestine. Some of us can’t make it. Those of us that can make it are able to break down the lactose.”

 

 

Quote

Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, an expert in human nutrition at the University of Sydney, said there may be tiny amounts of lactase in raw milk but not of “any physiological significance”.

Prof Brand-Miller said lactase is an enzyme naturally found in the gut lining, and “raw milk contains many enzymes, but the amounts of lactase are negligible”.

“There is no lactase in milk that’s of any physiological significance. It has no effect on the digestion of lactose… It is not enough to make one iota of difference for someone with lactose intolerance,” she told AAP FactCheck in an email.

When comparing raw and pasteurised milk, an article published by Stanford Medicine found no difference in its impact on digestion “regardless of bacteria” because raw milk and pasteurised milk have the same amount of lactose.

If you like milk, maybe following it with a plain yogurt chaser could be enough.  I may try it myself as I have noticed more sensitivity, but not sure it is lactose because lactaid does not solve it all.  I don’t have issues with yogurt usually, but haven’t eaten much lately.  Maybe I will test it tomorrow.

[Calm]

1 hour ago, Pyreaux said:

Alright, fine, let's all trust the government.

It is the absence of lactase producers in the intestine that causes lactose intolerance, not pasteurization.  Otherwise, everyone drinking pasteurized milk would be lactose intolerant.

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/gene/lct/

Since you can make yogurt out of pasteurized milk by adding Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, again pasteurization not the issue.

 

[The Nehor]

3 hours ago, Pyreaux said:

Alright, fine, let's all trust the government.

The government is easily fact checked by all kinds of private medical organizations and research groups.

It is not like government health officials are routinely lying like, say, about 70% of the members of Congress.

Edited April 4 by The Nehor

[Amulek]

On 3/31/2023 at 9:19 PM, Calm said:

Is there a typical food or dining pleasure yet that could be indulged in significantly and wouldn’t cause harm?

BBQ.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Teancum]

On 3/31/2023 at 10:25 PM, MustardSeed said:

Don’t take away my sugar.  You’ll have to rip it from my cold, dead hands.☠️

In all seriousness, I think it’s rather hypocritical of us not to consider the damage that sugar does to our temples. I just don’t wanna know about it today. I have conference cinnamon rolls to bake and I loaded up with every kind of soda imaginable. We have lots of guests coming. This is how we party.

Sugar is really bad for you.  And most of us have sugar addictions. Maybe even worse of our societal health than alcohol though sugar does not have a social stigma of addiction.  But alcohol is really bad for us as well. And as noted in the OP even in moderate amounts it likely really is not good for us.  Better to eliminate it all together.

[MustardSeed]

11 minutes ago, Teancum said:

Sugar is really bad for you.  And most of us have sugar addictions. Maybe even worse of our societal health than alcohol though sugar does not have a social stigma of addiction.  But alcohol is really bad for us as well. And as noted in the OP even in moderate amounts it likely really is not good for us.  Better to eliminate it all together.

Ok you’ve sold me.  I’ll quit. 

[Teancum]

3 minutes ago, MustardSeed said:

Ok you’ve sold me.  I’ll quit. 

Sugar?  Or alcohol?  Or both?  😁

[Hamilton Porter]

On 4/1/2023 at 12:18 AM, Pyreaux said:

And it's the pasteurization of milk that causes lactose intolerance in most people.

What? Lactose tolerance is an evolutionary mechanism for people descended from sheepherders. My ancestors were farmers and never sheepherders, so that's why I'm lactose intolerant.

[MustardSeed]

1 hour ago, Teancum said:

Sugar?  Or alcohol?  Or both?  😁

It will be much easier for me to quit the alcohol.  My once a month indulgence in a good nights sleep with my trusty zzzQuil could be replaced with better sleep hygiene.  
The sugar?  Shoot I already blew it when I ate a lifesaver I took off the reception desk at my office an hour ago .  
 

Starting…..  NOW! 

[The Nehor]

I love that what we should be eating and drinking is still pretty much an unsolved problem.

[Hamilton Porter]

Sugars not just as bad as alcohol. It's as bad as cigarettes.

[Tacenda]

1 hour ago, Hamilton Porter said:

Sugars not just as bad as alcohol. It's as bad as cigarettes.

I had never heard of it before, but read that there is a diabetes type 3 now and it causes Alzheimer's. That's scary! https://www.healthline.com/health/type-3-diabetes

Edited April 5 by Tacenda