I
have been listening to reports about research on recommended weekly
amounts of alcohol. Dr Melanie
Nichols of Oxford University, the
lead author of a recently
published paper, said: "Over
4,000 deaths from cancer, heart disease, stroke and liver disease in
England could be prevented if drinkers reduced their average level of
alcohol consumption to half a unit per person per day - a level much
lower than current UK government recommendations.” She went
on to say that a half unit
of alcohol would be just a
quarter of a glass of wine,
or a quarter of a pint of
beer. These days a
unit of alcohol corresponds to half a glass of wine – or a glass
and a half of wine per week.
And
here I am busily making wine with every possible ingredient I can lay
my hands on. Right now I have 18 bottles maturing and fourteen
gallons still fermenting. Oh dear. What shall I do? Should I empty it
all down the jacks?
But,
to look on the bright side, if we adhere to these new guidelines, the
present amount of alcohol being processed should last Nellybert a
number of years. I have done the math. There are 5 glasses in a
bottle and 6 bottles to the gallon. Multiply that by 17 and that
comes to 510 gallons. We would be drinking three glasses between us
every week and at that level of consumption the wine will last us
three years and three months.
I
comfort myself with the thought that when the statistics are examined
more closely those 4000 + extra deaths per year translates into a
probability of the drinking classes living about a fortnight less
than the abstainers. It being late, and me on the wine, I cannot be
bothered to research this thoroughly but, if any reader is
interested, the views of statistician David Spiegelhalter are worth a
moment or two of your time.
Now
as well as making wine Nellybert
has also a freezer full of
home-grown pig
and I'm sorry to say that eminent researchers in
Harvard have shown that
those of us who eat red meat more than three
times a week are also shortening life expectancy, so if you are
partial to a bacon sandwich and a glass of wine you're probably going
to live around six weeks less than an abstemious vegetarian. Well
worth it in my opinion. Slainte!
Bon appetit!
5 comments:
My mother had a dickey heart and was told in 1957 (when she was 43) not to eat butter, cream, fat etc. She eat bread on butter, all the fat off our plates, and spooned the cream everywhere even into the scone mixture. She didn't drink because she didn't like the taste and she lived until she was 82.
We all have an allotted time and won't go one minute before or one minute after. So enjoy all your home produce and be happy. Slainte!
I come from a long line...of meat eating, hard drinking souls and I intend to keep to those high standards...
Who wants to live an extra fortnight anyway?
Wow its a very good post. The information provided by you is really very good and helpful for me. Keep sharing good information..
Sure will Garden Centre. Glad to be of use.
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