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Should You Have Wine Or Beer After Meals?

posted on May 22, 2008 in Beer and Health

The hypnotizing experience of wine or beer after meals is hard to be described in words, by making the right choice about the drink you can enhance your pleasure of drinking by leaps and bounds.

Most people associate wine with food than the beer, as beer is often thought of to have less value, as most of it is inexpensive, while the perception is different for wine. And many bar accessory manufacturers and owners of home bar accessories stores would vouch for the generally held view. While, this may perhaps be true in some parts of the world, all beer might not be thought of as something that’s not as fine as wine.

Wine: A couple of surveys were conducted and it was found that many people opted for wine after food, perhaps because of the perception associated with it, or simply the love of the drink. Whatever the reason wine was thought to be perfect to go along with meals. So the beer seemed to have taken a hit.

Wine Glasses: It does rid the mind of effort when we decide for wine over beer and settle down with the decision, but this simply is an illusion. Once it’s known which drink’s to be devoured, the importance of wine accessories kick in.

The Stem: Though often neglected, it’s the stem of wineglasses that holds the key to the taste. In case you choose to hold the bowl and not the stem, you run the risk of ruining its taste by passing on the body heat in to the drink. White, red or any other kind of wine begs to be held from the stem.

The Shape: It’s now a well established fact, that for the most part it’s the aroma that leads to and enhances the taste of wines. Just as there are different kinds of the drink so are the glasses that go hand in hand with them, a slight mismatch and you risk losing out on pleasure.

Meant for red wines the Bordoux glass is tall with a wide bowl and directs the drink to the back of the mouth. Cabernet and Merlot are two of the most suited wines for the design. Then there’s the Burgundy glass that has a wider bowl to accumulate the aromas, it’s great for wines such as the Pinot Noir.

Narrowness is the prime characteristic of white wineglasses, while not as slim as the champagne flutes, they feature straighter sides. Their slender design and the longer stem, both aid in keeping the wines cool.

Finer Points: Still finer intricacy of wine drinking entails not filling up the glass to the brim, rather keeping it till the broadest part of the glasses’ anatomy. This allows for the aroma to concentrate at the top thus intensely appealing to the nostrils and augmenting the flavor manifold. Large glasses are often associated with fun and are simply great for red wines, whereas the smaller ones let you appreciate the finer nuances of fine wines.

Beer: Perceptually, beer might be thought of as not matching up to the finer standards of wine. However, there isn’t much of a difference between the two, as both comprise alcohol. Moreover, the distinction further fades away when you make beer from quality ingredients just like you do with the wines. Additionally, if you make a wine out of low quality constituents it too might turn out to be bad.

Consider the case of craft beer, it can very well be compared to a good wine. And even the people who took the surveys didn’t show much difference in their preferences when they were presented with superior beers. Similarly, exotic beers from places other than North America too present the consumer with an awesome experience, such as the Belgian sour beers with fruit added.

Beer Glasses: If you thought of beers of not being as fine as wines and that the glass you drink it in doesn’t matter, then you bet you were dead wrong. Principles similar to that of drinking wine apply to beers as well. Enriching the drink’s flavor by preserving the temperature and directing a deluge of ethereal aromas through to your nostrils are the two paramount considerations.

Wheat beer glasses comprising varieties such as the Pint glasses, Pilsner glasses, Beer steins are narrow in the middle and progressively broader at the top to hold rich froth and also to captivate aromas to enable a spellbinding olfaction.

While the Pints come with conical, jug and flared tops the Pilsners are created for effervescence and clarity. Flute glasses, Goblet, Snifters, Tulip glass, Stange & Becher and more types of beer glasses are all meant to squeeze out the daintiness of beers, whether common or exotic.

Finer Points: When it about beers, not just the glassware but the serving temperature and how you fill up the vessel also matter. When pouring beer it’s important not to tilt the glass, rather the key is to pour it in two to three takes, and after each take wait a while till the drink settles down. This also helps to make the experience less harsh and smoother. While the chill is good, frozen beer means all you money goes down the drain as you wont get any benefit from the aromas, so mush essential to the flavor.

Wine and beer, both being alcohol, may have the benefits associated with the compound. Moderate alcohol consumption has been correlated with less risk of cardiovascular diseases and even cancer.

Surveys and tips ‘n’ tricks aside, what you order after meals, perhaps depends a lot on the quality of the drink. Whether it’s wine or beer, your personal preferences too rule the roost. If you’re confused because there are too many options, then it might be quite fruitful to seek the advice of a sommelier as they are the experts and might give you al lot more insight about the quality of the drinks that would go along with different cuisine. Whether wine or beer, to enjoy the experience is the key and if you’ve made the choice after giving it a thought, the pleasure of wine or beer drinking will prevail throughout the spell and afterwards.

ezinearticles.com

Drink Beer to Get Thin or Does Beer Make You Fat?

posted on April 22, 2008 in Beer and Health

These post looks like very negative. Just Read it. And wait for a small time - i’ll provide you few tips how to drink your favorite beer, like you do it now, and don’t think about your weight. Yea - i’ll get few recipes for you.

It would be great to drink all the beer you want and not have any of the effects. Although getting some of those effects often will be a good reason for drinking it. Drinking a few beers can be very relaxing but also give you a nice little buzz sometimes. However, it may also give you some negative effects like help in making you fat.

Certainly, a couple of drinks during the weekend or for some type of infrequent special occasion most likely won’t affect your overall fat one way or another. Of course, this really is assumes that you do some exercise once in a while. If you are trying to lose weight, these few beers may have some type of impact but not anything major. Still, any choices you make regarding drinking or eating will either help or hurt you every time.

Obviously, having the ability to enjoy life may include having a few drinks with your friends or family once in a while. I certainly cannot hold that against you? You really need to balance your life to get some enjoyment every once in a while.

However, drinking more than a few drinks of beer or alcohol everyday could be a great deterrent from keeping your current weight and/or reducing it. It’s hard to avoid consuming a couple 150 calorie beers every day without it affecting your fat content. Most people who do this don’t have the necessary bodily activity to burn off all these calories daily. Furthermore, these calories don’t have a lot of nutritional content.

Let’s look at just how many calories you could consume by having a couple beers everyday for a whole year. Two beers every day allow you to consume 300 extra calories everyday. This amounts to a total of 2100 every week. Extend this further to get a years amount of almost 110000 calories. This will actually come out to be around 31 pounds of fat gained annually. For most people, this will be rather difficult to lose.

Beer and alcohol helps prevent the burning of fat (using fat for the body’s energy). When person consuming it metabolizes the alcohol, the process assists in preventing him or her from appropriately metabolizing fat.

Think of the calories inside beer as no more than empty calories that actually take the room of calories you should have in their place. Although there might be some nutritional value inside, it is minimal. It will be much better to have some good food value calories that help your body instead of hurt.

Whether you are attempting to lose weight or not, drinking too much beer or alcohol will be self-defeating. It might be okay to drink a few during the weekend. A few means maybe one or two but not much more than that. Remember that whenever you’re taking in drinks or food, except for water, you’ll be ingesting calories. They don’t have to be fat calories to become fat in your body.

If you look at almost anyone that drinks a lot of beer everyday, you’ll see that on average many of them gain a lot of their fat in their stomach. Most experts see this generating fat around the mid-section as very problematic for overall health. They say it is a symptom of possible future heart disease.

So the next time you think about having more than one or two beers during the week, you might want to think differently. Instead of developing a craving for drinking down a beer, you might want to start trying something a little more healthy like eating fruit or vegetables. It might sound funny to tell someone that normally likes to drink beer to instead eat something like an apple, but if you really try, you’re bound to find some nutritionally sound food that will satisfy you.

Go to http://www.bestfatlossprogram.com/ to get your free weightloss muscle toning ebook. Aside from past experience figure out why I know so much about losing weight, getting lean and toning up.

Beer Drinking Tips - The Health Benefits of Beer

posted on April 18, 2008 in Beer and Health

Many of the studies that document the beneficial effects of alcohol have highlighted the virtues of red wine. Only recently has beer come to the foreground as a health-giving beverage. The published research papers cited below provide ample evidence that beer, when consumed moderately, may be even more salutary than wine.

Healthy Effects of Alcohol

The overall picture that has emerged is that consumption of alcohol in moderation is good for the cardiovascular system. Its consumption is associated with elevated levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Many drinkers have also been found to have less fibrinogen, a protein thought to be a culprit in the occurrence of strokes and thromboses. Alcohol has also been known to lower insulin levels, which in turn lessens the risk of atherosclerosis, a condition in which the arteries harden.

Several experiments, such as one conducted at the Institute of Epidemiology at the University of Münster in Germany, suggest that beer may lessen the risk of coronary disease. But a number of other studies demonstrate that the benefits of beer go beyond those attributed to the alcohol it contains.

Research from the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute in the Netherlands showed that levels of vitamin B6 in beer drinkers increased thirty percent while those who regularly consumed gin and red wine gained by only half that rate.

Study findings published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition’s July 2001 issue suggest that the presence of folate, the anion form of vitamin B9, is responsible for some of beer’s healthful effects. Folates have been known to fight cardiovascular disease.

One study conducted at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and published in a 2001 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that beer consumed in moderation aided in the preservation of mental capacities in older women.

A study from Tufts University in Massachusetts shows that drinking beer, be it light or dark, helps to maintain the mineral density of the bones. The leg bones among elderly people are prone to thinning.

Risks Associated With Beer

What about the health risks associated with beer consumption?

There is enough evidence from research about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to warrant prohibiting women from drinking alcohol. A baby may suffer from brain disorders if the alcohol consumed by the mother passes through the umbilical cord and through the milk in her breasts.

Gaining weight can be a concern for beer drinkers. While beer contains no fat, one glass will have 150 to 450 calories, depending on the kind of brew. Counted in terms of volume, this amount is lower than the calories found in apple juice or red wine in a glass of similar size.

Other known adverse effects of excessive beer drinking include liver damage and stress on the kidneys. Amount of intake is, of course, a key factor in whether beer becomes a healthy or unhealthy drink.

Immediate Effects

Coffee is an example of a beverage that contains a less-than-desirable substance (caffeine) yet immediately provides benefits when taken in the right amount. The alertness that caffeine causes can be advantageous at work and when driving.

Drinking beer in excess does result in lowered mental acuity in the immediate aftermath, making automobile driving a high-risk undertaking. But when intake is moderate, beer becomes a relaxing drink that provides relief from stress, a known causative element in many diseases. It helps to remember that the drawbacks of intemperate drinking outweigh the advantages of controlled alcoholic beverage consumption.

The alcohol in beer provides modest B vitamins amounts, plus more useful quantities of magnesium, selenium and other trace elements. Beer is mostly water, which along with the alcohol, helps to cleanse the kidneys. Alcohol and the brewing process also help destroy bacteria in the water.

Needless to say, no single study or report on the health effects of beer can be considered definitive. But most suggest, that when taken in amounts exceeding no more than two 12-ounce glasses a day, beer will almost always be a great benefit, rather than a risk, to one’s health.

For more information on the Health Benefits of Beer visit the Beer Guide, a popular site for beer drinkers and homebrew enthusiasts. Discover the history of beer, how it is brewed and the many types of beer on offer around the world.


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