Drink diet pop all the time? Look forward to VASCULAR DEATH News today calculated to disgruntle many a Reg reader – and some Reg hacks – as it has been revealed by boffinry that the daily glugging down of "diet" soft drinks increases the risk of "vascular events such as stroke, heart attack, and vascular death". "Our results suggest a potential association between daily diet soft drink …
I find that hard to believe. Nobody wants sweetened beer. The only reason that sugar is used in beer is to feed the yeast to make the alcohol. By the time the beer has finished brewing there is virtually no actual sugar left, it has all been converted to alcohol.
If you want less alcohol you might use less sugar I suppose but there is absolutely no point replacing the sugar you left out with artificial sweetener because what you would end up with is beer that tasted like Diet Coke and nobody would want that.
You're right when it comes to simple sugars that the yeast can eat, but there are still a lot of other sugars in there. Complex, longer chain stuff that our bodies can digest perfectly, but yeast can't.
Also it's usually enzymatic starch conversion during the mash, not addition of refined sugar, that is where the sugars come from to feed the yeast. At least in 'real' beer. The temperature of this mashing process determines which enzymes dominate and exactly which sugars are produced by the malt. A slightly higher temperature and you'll get some of the more complex dextrins (IIRC) which is one factors in the varying tastes of beer.
Some styles (milk stout, for instance) do also specifically add in non-fermentable sugars like lactose to sweeten and thicken the brew without making it stronger.
Beer is a complex and wonderful beast :)
Yes, Goat Jam, it's as David says. Myself, I was mainly referring to the growing practice of adding sugars (and alternatives such as aspartame) to some commercial lagers and the like when the brewing process is almost completed and all the fermentation has already happened.
The main reason for this is because demographically, our tastes are gravitating towards sweeter drinks. More women and young people drink beer, for one, and these groups generally don't like too much bitterness and sourness. It fits the general strategy of the big brewing companies, and there are probably other motives involved, like covering up slight inadequacies of the recipe used.
It's similar to how the amount of sugar used in ketchup has gradually increased over the decades.
and after that one, let's ban
α-(5,6-dimethylbenzimidazolyl)cobamidcyanide because it's got cyanide in it so it must be just so terribly dangerous. And then (R)-3,4-dihydroxy-5-((S)- 1,2-dihydroxyethyl)furan-2(5H)-one as well
Oh, hang on, that's Vitamins B12 and C
I think you'll find that chemtrails have been found to be mostly dihydrogen monoxide ... Evil stuff. Causes drownings, and people have died from ingesting it. It has been detected in all the worlds oceans, drinking water supplies and all icecaps. It is in your beer and wine, and all the food you eat.
Will no one think of the chiiiillllddrreenn!
I'd be considerably more worried about the Aspartame in the damned stuff. It's all kinds of shady...
"Aspartame has been controversial since day one. Searle, the manufacturer, had failed to win FDA approval for 16 years and was under investigation for performing fraudulent studies. Aspartame was suddenly approved in 1981 when Donald Rumsfeld, former CEO of Searle and new member of President Ronald Reagan’s transition team, appointed a new FDA commissioner."
When I read about how bad for me something would be /if/ I drank or ate it --- but I don't.
I dislike coke/cola flavour. I get a craving for Sprite or 7-up when I have the flu, and ignore it the rest of the year. The whole fizzy-drink passes me by on the other side of the street.
Wish I could say I didn't poison myself at all, though: sugar addict, I'm afraid, mostly in tea.
Here in the States, the FDA decided that Sucralose is "natural" and now you can even find it in whole wheat bread! The label doesn't have to say "artificially sweetened" and the sucralose is listed at the end in fine print so you might not even see it, or think it says sucrose. Yech.
I am rather curious about where they put the line between safe and unsafe consumption. As I've seen it reported, the safe consumption claimed in this study is up to 6 drinks a week, and the reports didn't specify the size of the drink. That leaves me wondering if the question asked in the survey was something like "Do you drink diet soda every day?"
I really get tired of the entire "American beer is pisswater" bullshit. For example, see:
http://www.mendobrew.com/home.php
http://www.stonebrew.com/beers/
http://www.lagunitas.com/beers/index.html
http://www.avbc.com/main/our-beers/
http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/the-brews/index.htm
27 years ago, my sister's Yorkshire Dales born-and-bred father-in-law proclaimed Red Tail Ale from Mendocino Brewing "The best jar I ever 'ad". He was shocked, to say the least. He had hated "bloody yanks" since WW II, but he's been back to California once or twice a year ever since. They say familiarity breeds contempt, but I find fear of the unknown is far more likely to produce contempt ...
... The likes of "bud light", et alia, are really a tribute to modern manufacturing capability. They are preserved water, no more, and no less. When consumed young, and unmolested, they have no off-flavo(u)rs, and taste the same all over the world (assuming proper storage ... methal mercaptin isn't exctly tasty ...).
Trying to re-create such a thing at home is a serious test of a home-brewer's skill. Don't believe me? Try it. Water, barley, rice, yeast & hops ... how hard can it be? :-)
All I know is, I used to munch my way through a pack of sugar-free (aspartame full) gum each day, and for months I had pains in my back (kidneys area). I put up with it until it got quite bad, then decided to act.
I tried giving up the gum - NO OTHER CHANGES in my life - and within days the pain had gone and hasn't returned since.
I now stick to Xylitol sweetened gum after meals, good for the teeth and is supposed to even have an anti-earache/throat-infection effect too. Pricey, but worth it.
The solution to the issue is that you simply should not overdo things. Trying to stay healthy by fully limiting yourself to "healthy food" isn't good. Just like eating only unhealthy food such as hamburgers and such all the time is likewise an issue.
Simply make sure that you get enough from both sides of the border. There is no problem with eating unhealthy as long as you make sure that you also get plenty of healthy food. Variation to the things you eat is key here. Which also helps you to stay a little healthier.
Still... You know what's also good for your health? Not reading studies like these and as long as you're happy with your current eating habits simply ignore studies like these entirely. One moment its healthy to drink a glass of wine every now and then, and half a year later studies conclude that drinking wine may actually cause heart problems. Only to be "superseded" by another research which determines that wine is actually good for the brains.
Don't listen to studies; listen to what your body is telling you instead.
I think it might just be easier if they all started listing foods and drinks that don't cause cancer / heart attacks / leprosy / scurvy etc. We could have them all stocked at dispenceries in controlled amounts, in case too much or too little is responsible for blindness and immediate death.
Is apple juice (pressed) considered safe still?
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