Good Health Researchers at Harokopio University in Athens measured the cardiovascular health of non-smoking men in their late twenties an hour after they polished off 400 milliliters of beer (a little more than two-thirds of a British pint or more than four-fifths of an American pint . They then ran the same tests after the participants drank 400 mL of alcohol-free beer and once after a measure of vodka was consumed. The scientists found that the real beer made the arteries more flexible and that endothelial function, which measures how easily blood passes through major arteries significantly improved after the men drank the beer. Alcohol and antioxidants in beer are to thank for these health benefits, researchers said. |
We All Scream For Ice Cream The summer's big hit item is eer-flavored ice cream and floats, from a number of dairies around the country. Think ice cream made with Belgian-style Tripel ale and apricot jam; a three-hops ice cream with chunks of upside-down cake baked with candied pineapple, tangerine zest and hop leaves; or a scoop of vanilla floated in a creamy milk stout. Not bad! Mixing alcohol and dairy isn’t revolutionary. Liquor has long shown up in bourbon milkshakes and rum-raisin ice cream. But as artisan ice-cream makers seek local ingredients that push the envelope, craft beers offer new dimensions, Beer can help bring some bitterness and dryness to an ice cream, which is traditionally sweeter than other desserts. The marriage isn’t always harmonious. The water in beer tends to create icy textures, making it difficult to make a creamy ice cream with discernible beer flavors. So the darkest, most concentrated beers are the best candidates for beer ice cream. They’re made by reducing each beer by half before adding milk and cream, Some producers avoid iciness by keeping beer out altogether. A firm in OR has developed a “six pack” of beer ice creams, five of which do not include any beer. First they worked with local brewers to “deconstruct, then reconstruct” specific beers into ice creams using a variety of malts, lactic acid, a partly fermented beer, yeasts, a bourbon barrel and whole and pellet hops There may be limits, though, on mixing innocent sweets and adult beverages. Recently the Brazilian Advertising Self-Regulating Council warned the brewer of Skol, a popular beer in Brazil, that its Skol-flavored ice cream could entice children because posts about the product appeared on the company’s Facebook fan page. A spokesman for Skol, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, responded that the ice cream, with an alcohol content of 0.12 percent, was available only to adult customers in bars in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration regulates food products with 0.5 percent alcohol by volume, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau regulates anything above that. (Additional state-by-state laws can also apply.) For those of drinking age seeking a looser union of beer and ice cream, beer floats have universal appeal in the way the creaminess of ice cream works with effervescence. After every sip of creamy ice cream, the bubbliness clears the palate and makes your mouth ready for the next bite. Ah, it doesn't get much better! -------------------- |
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