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Alcohol is Good and Bad for Your Health

December 13th 2009 14:11
One day alcohol is good for your health and the next day it's a menace, but for the most part, you'll have to make the decision for yourself. Weigh the pros and cons in order to figure out whether or not you want to drink alcohol.

Remember that everything has the potential to give you cancer, so it's your decision if you want to eat food off a plastic plate that you warmed your food up on or a glass one- the BPA is a potential risk with plastic, so weigh the pros and cons.

First off understand the potential benefits of drinking alcohol.

Moderate alcohol consumption can potentially reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in women by increasing the 'good' cholesterol in the bloodstream and increasing the blood sugar levels. A daily glass of wine can potentially reduce the risk of dementia, bone loss, and physical disabilities of old age, as well as potentially increase lifespan and provide protection from certain cancers such as esophageal and lymphoma.


But, at the same time, drinking alcohol has potential health risks such as cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, liver, colon/rectum, and breast. Alcohol can also potentially cause liver damage. If you're prone to cancer, then it's highly recommended that you limit your alcohol consumption.

Some people find that drinking alcohol for the health benefits outweighs the potential health risks.

The benefits of drinking alcohol are related to the antioxidants and anti-inflammatories that are in red wine and darker beers, but you can easily get the same substances from fruits and vegetables. When it comes to preventing disease, you are more than likely better off changing your diet than by drinking. You can easily drink grape juice and get the antioxidant- resveratrol- instead of drinking a glass of red wine.


If you are a drinker, remember that drinking in moderation is the key. For women, drinking moderately is one drink a day- for men it is two.

One drink consists of one of the following, not all of them:
* 12 ounces of regular beer or wine cooler
* 8 ounces of malt liquor
* 5 ounces of wine
* 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits or liquor

If you drink more than the recommended one glass for a woman a day, there are potential health risks that can easily reduce your life expectancy.

There is no easy way to prevent cancer, disease, or other health conditions, so don't think one glass of wine a day is going to be an easy, quick fix. You should still consider changing your diet as one of the best prevention methods.

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Alcohol is not a good if you are trying to lose weight, as it is a weight loss suppressant, meaning alcohol will make you gain wait. Unless you are a major alcoholic, and in that case the more you drink, the fuller you will be so the less you'll eat and the calories even out. Typically alcoholics are on the thinner side, whereas average drinkers can have the beer gut, so to speak.

But, you probably already know this, which is why you're trying to figure out why you gain weight when drinking alcohol. Basically, there are a few reasons as to why alcohol causes the averaged drinker to gain weight..

Alcohol is very high in calories, so when you eat an averaged days worth of food and drink to top it all off, you can actually double your calorie intake for that day. And, your body cannot process the extra calories, so it essentially sits in the body and turns to fat. So, if you eat 2,500 calories of food and drink 2,000 calories of alcohol, you have ingested 4,500 calories in that one day, and your body just can't process it all in a 24 hour period.

Another way to look at it, is that alcohol is hard for the body to digest and turn into a usable energy, so the body turns it into a substance that it can use quickly. When this happens, the other nutrients that your body is already trying to burn and use, such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, are not able to be stored in the cells because the alcohol is using up the space. So, in these terms, the alcohol is slowing down your body's ability to metabolize the nutrients in your body, and the slower your metabolism is, the faster your gain weight.

Now, as for the sugars, because alcohol contains a lot of extra sugar, when you mix them with the added calories and the body's metabolic functions, the sugar from the alcohol make you gain weight faster.

So as you can see with the extra calories and sugars that are in an alcoholic drinks, there's no way you can stick with your diet, as the alcohol will cause you to gain weight, at least for the average drinker- not the true alcoholic.


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You'll find that in most Mexican restaurants, Wednesday is declared margarita night, where margaritas are discounted. Well, you don't have to go to a restaurant to purchase your margarita; you can always make your own, at home. It'll be cheaper even using the discount at the restaurant.

The main ingredient that you'll want to make sure that you have is a good tequila. Below, I've included a few recipes, that, although I haven't tried, sound delicious.

Frozen Margarita Recipe
Ingredients:
* 2 (6 ounce) cans frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
* 1 1/2 cups tequila
* 1/2 cup Triple Sec
* 2 tablespoons sifted confectioners' sugar
* Ice cubes
* Lime wedges
* Coarse salt
* Lime wedges, for garnish

Directions:
Combine half of each of the first 4 ingredients in container of an electric blender. Process 30 seconds. Gradually add enough ice cubes to bring mixture to 3 1/2 cup level; blend until smooth. If you want to freeze for later use, pour mixture into a large freezer container. Repeat procedure with remaining half of ingredients. Cover tightly and freeze up to 1 month.

To serve, If frozen, thaw 20 minutes or until mixture becomes slushy. Rub rims of cocktail glasses with lime wedge. Place salt in saucer; spin rim of each glass in salt. Pour beverage into prepared glasses. Garnish, if desired. Serve immediately. Yields about 7 cups.

Strawberry Margarita Recipe
Ingredients:
* 1 ounce tequila
* 1/2 ounce Triple Sec
* 1/2 ounce strawberry schnapps
* 1/2 ounce lemon or lime juice
* 1 ounce fresh or frozen strawberries

Directions:
Rub rim of glass with a rind of lemon and dip in salt. Shake ingredients with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Beer Margarita Recipe
Ingredients:
* 6 ounces tequila (preferably white or blanco)
* 12 ounces beer (any will do)
* 6 ounces frozen limeade concentrate
* Ice cubes to suit
*Lime flavored salt

Directions:
Cover the rim of the glass with the salt. Pour all ingredients into blender and blend well.

You can find the above recipes, as well as many other recipes for margaritas at Margarita Texas
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Sunday Morning Hangover Remedy

March 1st 2009 08:53
So you've been partying all weekend, and it's now Sunday morning and you've got a strong hangover. You probably don't want to get out of bed, leave the lights off, cover your head with the comforter or your pillow, and you probably just don't want to move at all. It's not fun, I've been there, done that.

What you want to know how to do is cure your hangover. You hear the common tricks of hot showers, coffee, etc., but the only thing I've found that really works is sleeping it off, drinking water before bed, and pacing the amount of alcohol that you drink. But there are other hangover remedies that you can try to cure your hangover.

First off, you know you have a hangover when you have:

* A headache
* Bloodshot eyes
* Dizzy feeling
* Drowsy
* Dry mouth
* Light sensitivity
* Nausea and vomiting

You can try some of the following hangover cures:

* For your headache, you can try cinnamon to ease the throbbing headache.
* Consume a lot of water before you actually go to bed, as this will provide relief the next morning caused by dehydration. Continue to drink water when you wake up.
* Eat food while you are drinking and after you are drinking because this will help reduce the rate that the alcohol is entering your bloodstream, which will reduce the after-affects (IE the hangover).
* Take a Vitamin C tablet, as the vitamin will help break down the alcohol that is in your body.
* Eat mineral rich foods, such as pickles or canned fish.
* Drink a shot-sized portion of what you drank the night before.


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How to Prevent a Hangover

February 28th 2009 16:21
If you're planning on going out and drinking, you should always know your limit, and you should always have a sober ride home. Never endanger yourself or others when drinking.... I know this sounds like something your mother would tell you, but hey, it's advice that just may save your life one day.

But, I'm sure this isn't the first time that you've gone out with your friends partying and drinking, and it's probably won't be the first hangover you've ever had. Well, here are a few tips to reducing the chances of waking up in the morning with a hangover.

Please remember that I have not necessarily tried all of these tips, but I have tried a few of them, and they work. Let's say, I haven't woken up with a hangover in many months, and by limiting how fast I drink the night before, I'm even able to drink more alcohol.

When drinking you never want to drink on an empty stomach because the food will absorb some of the alcohol in your body and it will help your body to digest the alcohol faster. By eating starchy foods before you drink and while you drink, the foods will slow down the alcohol absorption.

Ty to limit how fast you consume the alcohol. The slower your drink, the more you can drink, and the less likely of waking up with a hangover. I know it sounds odd, but it works for me. Some people say drink just 1 drink each hour, but as long as you limit how fast you drink alcohol, you should reduce the hangover risk just slightly.

Alternate your alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic beverages. Try switching it up by alternating with water. You really don't want to drink a carbonated drink while drinking alcohol because the carbonation will speed up the alcohol absorption. Also, try to avoid drinking sweet drinks while you drink alcohol, as the sweet taste will make it harder to judge how much alcohol you're actually consuming.

Try taking a multi-vitamin with extra Vitamin B and/or C tablet with a glass of water before you go to bed.



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