Historic Uses for Alcohol

 Ramblings  No Responses »
Jul 272021
 

— Historic Uses of Alcohol —

Quaff — verb: to drink a beverage, especially an intoxicating one, copiously and with hearty enjoyment.

|Like everything else they do, Sexy Beasts quaff with gusto.

Oᴠᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ ʏᴇᴀʀs, alcoholic drinks have played divers roles:

  • Many cultures drank alcoholic beverages to avoid water-borne diseases such as cholera.
  • Russians have long drunk vodka in the belief that it keeps them warm.
  • Ancient Egyptians building the pyramids were paid in beer. (See: Beer Built the Pyramids.)
  • Italians say a glass of wine improves the appetite.
  • Parisians drink wine and smoke cigarettes in outdoor cafes to appear sophisticated.
  • Biblical references suggest wine was one of the principal beverages of the Israelites.
  • In suburban America, teenage boys throw kegger parties to lower teenage girls’ inhibitions.
  • In Japan, sake is used in Shinto purification rituals.
  • Around the world, Champagne is thought of as the celebratory beverage of choice.

      I’m not about to tell you not to drink alcohol, because I know, as a Sexy Beast, you’re likely to.
     As am I.
     Just be aware of the calories you’re consuming and drink safely.

Plan on employing one or more of these strategies to moderate your consumption when you do drink:

  • Don’t regularly exceed to two drinks a day. No binge drinking. Harvard Medical School studies have shown two drinks a day for men (it’s one a day for women) may even be beneficial to your health.
  • At parties, intersperse glasses of water: one drink, one glass of water, one drink, one glass of water….
  • Designate a driver or use Uber when you’re out and about. (Sexy Beasts do not drink and drive.)
  • Consult the list below and consider choosing the lower-calorie options.

Distilled Spirits (gin, rum, vodka, whiskey)

Short pour                                      1 ounce          64 calories
Regular pour                                  1.5 ounce        97 calories
Make-it-an-early-night pour           8 ounces       512 calories

Don’t forget to account for the calories in any mixers you use. You can find nearly any mixer in a no-calorie variety.

 Wine

Dry wine (red, white, or rose)        6 ounces       150 calories
Port, Sherry                                    3 ounces       90 calories            
Sweet wine (Mad Dog, etc.)           6 ounces       270 calories

Brews

Regular beer                                  12 ounces     150 to 200 calories
Light beer                                      12 ounces     85 to 145 calories
Stouts and ales                              12 ounces     200 to 450 calories
Nonalcoholic beer                         12 ounces     65 calories

Hard Cider                                    12 ounces     150-200 calories
Hard Seltzers                                12 ounces     90-120 calories

How Else Do You Explain Scotch Whiskey?

 Ramblings  No Responses »
Oct 092012
 

How Else Do You Explain
Scotch Whiskey?

Even the best Scotch only has about 64 calories per ounce. But it’s really easy to overdo the whiskey thing. Be safe if you decide to drink.

 There is an interesting phenomenon at work when we begin to eat or drink something regularly, we begin to like it.

Over the millenniums man has developed a taste for everything from insects to acorns. Why? Because these foods were available.

Eventually those who ate them regularly came to actually prefer them. Insects are still considered a delicacy in parts of the world and acorns, well, acorns didn’t actually make the cut, but you get the point.

You’ll find this eat-it-prefer-it phenomenon will happen automatically as you move to eating only healthy foods.

Beer Built the Pyramids

 Dieting Sucks, Ramblings  2 Responses »
Feb 012012
 

It's likely that ancient man invented agriculture so he could have an ample beer supply. Photo courtesy Idea Go.

We all know what the oldest profession is, but which do you think came first, baker or brewer?

 

 

 

According to University of Pennsylvania Professor Patrick McGovern, who is known as the “Indiana Jones of Ancient Ales, Wines, and Extreme Beverages,” Neolithic farmers had developed the necessary skills to grow grains so they could brew beer thousands of years before anyone was baking bread.

This means Sexy Beasts were guzzling beer at least 9,000 years ago. I don’t find that surprising. I imagine hunting and gathering from dawn till dusk was thirsty work.

Not only did man’s quest for beer help establish agriculture; it was beer that built the pyramids. The laborers who worked on the pyramids in ancient Egypt were paid in beer; 231,414,717 gallons of it for the pyramid at Giza alone. Anheuser-Busch eat your heart out.

This post is unedited material I’ve written for The Sexy Beast Diet. Constructive criticism is appreciated, after all everyone needs an editor. Just click the “Add Comments” link at the top right. Thanks!