I hope you get the same kick out of this that I did. ;o)
"10 Alcohol Myths That Just Aren’t True"
The 'Beer
Belly' is Caused by Drinking a Lot of Beer
Thank goodness you can relax and take an extra swig of your
beer without loosening your belt buckle. Professor of food science and
technology at the University of California, Davis Charles Bamforth is also an
Anheuser-Busch-endowed professor of brewing science and he told Popular Science,
"The beer belly is a complete myth. The main source of calories in any
alcoholic beverage is alcohol...There's nothing magical about the alcohol in
beer, it's just alcohol." Alcohol has a high sugar content, which means
that drinking too much of it will cause weight gain. Period. But if you’re seeing
some extra girth around your midsection it can’t necessarily be blamed on the
few extra beers you threw back on Saturday night — it very well might have been
the martini last night, or the glass of wine on Friday. There is no longer a
need to single out your poor beer as the cause of alcohol-induced weight gain.
Drinking Coffee Will Sober You Up
MythBusters helped us to bust this myth. They reported that "Coffee does not help
you get sober. If you're plastered, you're going to have to wait several hours
for the alcohol to leave your system on its own. Drinking coffee won't make
your body metabolize alcohol faster." Alcohol has to metabolize in your
body in order for you to sober up. Caffeine won’t necessarily speed up that
process, but it may heighten your senses and allow you to appear more sober.
Unfortunately, you’ll just have to sleep off your drunken stupor.
Men and Women of the
Same Height Can Drink the Same Amounts
If you're a woman, the next time you try to go shot for
shot with a bunch of your guy friends you should remember that you actually
will get drunker faster than the men in the group. The
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence reported
that when men and women of the same height, weight, and build were compared, it
was found that men tended to have more muscle and less fat than women. Muscle
has more water than fat, which means that alcohol is more diluted in men than
in women. So in reality, the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is going to be
higher in a woman than in a man, and the woman will feel the effects of the
alcohol sooner than a man will.
Absinthe is a
Hallucinogenic
Believe it or not, there is actually an association
dedicated to absinthe called The
Wormwood Society. They reported that "Contrary to
popular misconception, absinthe is not hallucinogenic, psychedelic, or
narcotic. If you're looking for this kind of experience you'll be very
disappointed in genuine absinthe. The only drug in absinthe is alcohol."
Absinthe can be extremely high in alcohol content, though, making the drink
extremely pungent when mixed in martinis and other cocktails. And let's face
it, if you have too much of any alcohol you might start seeing things — it’s
the beer goggles theory.
Mixing Alcohol with
Energy Drinks Will Make You Drunker
This was a tough myth to bust, but the answer is no,
mixing alcohol with energy drinks will not make your drunker. California State
University, Chico reported that alcohol mixed with energy drinks usually
contains the same amount of alcohol as draft beers and wines, but it’s the
addition of caffeine that can cause a dramatic intoxication. They
reported that "experts have started to call [it] the
'wide-awake drunk.' Essentially, this means the individual will have the same
blood alcohol content, BAC, as they would have without drinking the energy
drink, however the stimulants creates a more 'sobering' effect." It should
be noted that mixing energy drinks with alcohol can be incredibly dangerous to your health —
we don’t recommend it.
'Beer Before Liquor,
Never Been Sicker'
This myth explores whether or not the order in which you
drink different alcohols will make you sick. We left it to MythBusters rather than doing our own
hands-on research and they reported that, "If you
knock back the same alcohol content by chugging brewskies as you would
switching between beer and liquor, you'll be at risk for the same aftereffects:
dehydration, memory loss, nausea, and sensitivity to light and sound — in other
words, a hangover." Regardless of whether you drink your beer before your
liquor or your liquor before your beer, you’ll still end up with your head in
the toilet if you drank too much.
Vomiting Helps to Sober
You Up
This is another myth that does have some gray lines. Health Guidance reported that
vomiting does expel the alcohol that is in your stomach and
will stop it from further entering your blood stream, but the part of the
vomiting myth that isn’t true is that it will sober you up. The alcohol that is
already in your blood stream needs to metabolize, which means that you might
not continue to get drunker but you will in fact remain drunk until your body
has completely processed all the alcohol in your bloodstream.
Drinking Lighter-Colored
Alcoholic Drinks Will Prevent a Hangover
Drinking lighter-colored drinks like vodka and gin won’t
necessarily prevent a hangover the next morning, but it may help. The Mayo Clinic reported
that congeners, products of alcohol fermentation and one cause of a hangover,
are more prevalent in dark liquors such as brandy, whiskey, darker beer, and
red wine than they are in clear liquors such as vodka, gin, and lighter beers.
The same article reported that drinking too much of anything is going to make
you hungover, though — so whether you’re drinking light or dark alcohol it
probably won’t matter if you’ve had too much to drink anyway.
Alcohol Kills Brain
Cells
This myth is unnerving for college students who binge
drink regularly. But thankfully, those who overindulged in college can now rest
easy — it didn’t harm your brain cells. The New York Times reported
that former researcher at the State University of New York
at Buffalo Dr. Roberta J. Pentney found that "alcohol disrupts brain
function in adults by damaging message-carrying dendrites on neurons in the
cerebellum, a structure involved in learning and motor coordination. This
reduces communication between neurons, alters their structure, and causes some
of the impairment associated with intoxication. It does not kill off entire
cells, however." So there’s nothing to worry about when it comes to your
brain cells and alcohol, but that shouldn’t give you the go-ahead to binge
drink.
Dark Beer is Higher in
Alcohol Content
This myth made us laugh a little bit when we came across
it. Not all beer is created equal — you are truly in the hands of the
brewmaster when it comes to the alcohol content of the beer you are drinking.
You may very well have picked a lighter ale with a higher alcohol content than
the dark lager your friend is drinking. Some lighter colored beers have a high
alcohol content that can easily stand up to a big, bold, dark colored beer. So
don’t feel less badass because you ordered something lighter in color than the
beer veteran standing next to you.
Read more at http://www.thedailymeal.com/10-alcohol-myths-just-aren-t-true/101713
