Coffee, Beer or Wine – What Works Better for You

People will travel anywhere for good food – it’s crazy.
~Rene Redzepi~

In last Sunday’s Brunch – the weekly pull-out from Hindustan Times, there was an interesting article by columnist Seema Goswami.

I salivatingly read the story of how scientists have found that coffee, chocolate, and wine are actually good for me.

Now healthwise I think I can lay claim to being a special person. I have had heart attack 6 years back, and I have 2 stents installed inside me to allow smooth flow of blood. I take 4 medicines every day, and I meet my cardiologist every 6 months with myriad tests to check my wellbeing.

Nonetheless, invigorated by Seema’s finds, I’ve consumed enough chocolates in the past week than I had in the last 3 months.

Lucky for me, I haven’t turned into an addict, and yes I understand that it’s the dark chocolate that helps, not the milk ones.

While personal preferences should certainly vary, I can’t meanwhile help but feel sorry for my fellow Keralites who can no longer enjoy hard drinks except – if I know this right – consuming copious amount of beer.

I bring up beer here because I just happen to read Mikael Cho’s debate on which one between coffee and beer makes you more creative. And since Seema and Mikael both deal on coffee, I’m going to do a bit of mashup and see what emerges out of that.

Here we go.

 

Coffee – One Who Loves Never Leaves

If it wasn’t for the coffee, I’d have no identifiable personality whatsover. ~David Letterman~

Whoever said, a yawn is a silent scream for coffee, couldn’t have been more right, or so I think.

Mikael says coffee is like bottle rocket. The caffeine in the coffee tricks your brain into thinking you have lots of energy.

This effect happens within just 5 minutes of drinking your coffee. And the peak effect of caffeine on your body happens between 15 minutes and 2 hours after you consume it.

What happens when the good feelings start to wane?

Well, you long for another cup of coffee, and then another.

Which is why the researchers of behavioural sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine cautions that even low to moderate caffeine intake (as little as one 14-ounce mug per day) can quickly produce withdrawal symptoms, requiring you to take more of it to bring the stimulation back.

In her column Seema quotes a recent study conducted by the Luxembourg Institute of Health, Warwick Medical School, the University of South Australia and the University of Maine that found that eating your chocolate (the dark variety) with a nice steaming cup of coffee or tea is a fabulous idea since both the drinks have polyphenols, a substance that exists in chocolate and makes it beneficial to cardio and metabolic health.

There is another interesting observation dug out by Seema.

An American Diabetes Association study last year found ‘strong’ evidence that drinking six cups of coffee per day could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 33 per cent for both men and women. However, the results were the same with both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, so it is unlikely that the magic ingredient is caffeine.

So dear coffee-lovers, good news is indeed pouring.

 

What ‘bout Beer

I got 99 problems & beer solves all of ‘em. ~Earl Dibbles Jr.~

There is some element of truth in the quote above.

Mikael quotes a test done by the researchers at the University of Chicago, wherein they discovered that moderate amount of beer can indeed be a good thing for creativity’s sake.

In the test a logic-induced game was devised, and among the participants half of the men drank two pints of beer before playing the game, while the other half drank nothing.

The results were a bit of surprise.

It showed that men who drank, solved 40 percent more of the problems than sober men.

What could be the reason?

Should that be construed as a thumbs up to driving after drinking?

No, of course not.

Here is why.

According to Mikael, the test concluded that –

..a blood alcohol level of 0.07 (about 2 drinks) made the participants better at creative problem-solving tasks but not necessarily working memory tasks where they had to pay attention to things happening in their surroundings (like driving a car).

In other words, alcohol frees up your brain to think more creatively by reducing your ability to pay attention to the world around you which is so essential for driving.

To put it in plain English, driving – or doing anything that requires you to be alert to the surroundings – after drinking is dangerous, and must be avoided at all costs.

 

Coffee vs Beer

After the warnings, here is a sobering thought for you.

What is better, coffee or beer?

Looks like there is an old rivalry between the drinkers of one or the other.

Suppose you like both.

So…when would you have coffee, and when beer?

For more clarity here is an excellent infographic from someone who loves coffee. And it draws on the information I just gave above.

Take a look.

 

Don’t Leave Red Wine Behind

They saved my life, Socrates and red wine – ~Laura Sheeran~

I’m not a tippler, but whenever I try red wine I feel as if it is a blessing from heaven.

But good taste apart, red wine has plenty to feel nice about.

As borne out by researches, red wine, made from black grapes, is rich in antioxidants, such as quercetin and resveratrol.

And what do they do?

In the words of scientific studies –

Resveratrol suppresses molecules that cause inflammation and compounds in the blood which interfere with the production of insulin, thus helping us to live longer and healthier lives. The researchers, from the University of Buffalo, also found resveratrol reduced the development of type 2 diabetes and strokes.

Of course there is a caveat or two when you seek to enjoy red wine, as with any kind of drinking spirits.

Seema suggests that you –

..have a glass or two (low to moderate consumption is the key; drink the way Europeans do, no British-style binge-drinking) along with a diet high in fruits, vegetables, unrefined cereals, lots of fish, very little red meat, and lots of olive oil, and you are good to go for another few decades.

Touché!

 

So what should it be?

Well I’m for all the three. I love ‘em, yes, but also I now know that they are good for me – especially the chocolates.

Chocolate with coffee is new for me. I take black coffee, without milk. How will that go with a slice of black chocolate? I’ll soon find that out.

Meanwhile, as I close this article, I can’t possibly do honor to it without mentioning about the late Khushwant Singh, who I greatly admire if only for his love for good food and good drinks.

Spare your thought in the comments below. All the best to you.