--- Julia Thompson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > "Ronn! Blankenship" wrote: > > > Okay, so we outlaw alcohol, tobacco, and all other > "recreational" drugs > > (including coffee and tea?), as well as > unhealthy/excessive food. > > The problem is, all of the things you list above > except the tobacco and > "unhealthy" food have been shown to have some health > benefits in at > least some groups, when ingested in moderation. > > The key is moderation. > > 1 glass of red wine with a red meat meal assists in > digestion and may > help with cholesterol issues... > > Beer in moderation was shown in a study to be good > for you... But the maximum benefit is > reported at just 1 or 2 > beers a day. (And I don't know what having beer as > well as red wine is going to do....)
Low doses of alcohol (whether wine, beer or liquor) do improve HDL levels and MI risk; there is conflicting data on whether red wine is better, but my personal guess is yes, because of additional phytochemical content. "These data indicate that regular consumption of small to moderate amounts of alcoholic beverages, regardless of the type, reduces the risk of MI, and further suggest that there is benefit, in large part, from increases in HDL levels." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=10073785&dopt=Abstract > Tea has flavonids (sp?) that are good for you. 5 > cups of green tea a > day gives demonstrated health benefits... I don't > know what the health benefits of black tea are, > but I think I remember reading something about them > sometime this year. Black tea also has flavonoids, and both have polyphenols as well; studies I recall (population studies, not double-blinded etc) reported decreases in heart disease, colon cancer and possibly stroke (which would make sense, as stroke and heart attack are both predominantly atherosclerotic processes). > > On the food -- what is deemed "unhealthy" at some > point may be found to > be "healthy" at a later time -- in moderation. The > whole "fat is bad > for you" being turned on its head is a good example. > > Of course, there's no excuse for Twinkies, but one > Twinkie a week isn't > going to be horribly detrimental, if you're eating > reasonably good food the rest of the week. > > The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that > vegetables are good for > you. (And a wide variety of vegetables is best.) Double 'yep' and raise ya some berries - blue, cran, straw, rasp - all have a variety of antioxidants: polyphenols, elagic acid, etc.. I recently read that fresh oregano has, ounce for ounce (or gram for gram ;D ), about 40X the antioxidant punch as apple. Debbi who clearly needs to catch up on the doings of Laura Ingalls as I seem to have missed a lot! ;) __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
