TEA V. ALCOHOL

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8883, 7 August 1907, Page 1

TEA V. ALCOHOL

The Hospital, a well-known medical publication, which some years ago made a special investigation touching tho nutritive properties of New Zealand meat, and pronounced strongly in its favour, has tindertaken a fresh investigation. The subject is the respective merits of tea and alcohol. The report of the commission is, on the whole, highly favourable to the use of light wine as a beverage, and to the use of the French wines in particular. Careful experiments have shown that these wines, taken in moderate quantities with food, have a favoitrable effect on digestion. The wines oxamined included Trench, German, Australian, Oalifornian, Spanish, and Italian. The report says that the Australian , Clifornian, Spanish, and Italian wines are hardly to be considered as light wines, >'on account of the relatively high percentage of alcohol which they contain, and it declares that while they are undoubtedly useful as tonic beverages, thoy must be considered on the basis of port , sherry, and I Maderia, and used as such. The German wines are not so reliable as tho French, as they are more liable to adulteration, they are hot adulterated* are often the result of a second or third fomentation. The purchaser of light French wines, the commission declares, is extremely unlikely to get anything but pure wine. The proper quantity to be taken at a meal is rather more than a quarter and rather less than a half bottle. The wine should be j diluted with about an equal quan- J tity of water to obtain the best digestive results, but it is imma- ', terial whether this dilution takes j place inside or outside the stomach. The wine should *be sipped slowly, j so that it may be thoroughly mixed t with the foods. Champagne, on account of the carbon dioxide it contains, is a powerful stimulent to gastric digestion, and is exceedingly useful to persons suffering from certain form of dyspepsia. Further, the commission declares that '' it cannot too emphatically be insisted on tiiat light wine is essentially a temperanco beverage, and that i*s alcoholic contents is in many cases a character of secondary importance. One can only get sufficient alcohol from wine to produce j its full action of making one drunk by taking sufficient extract to make one ill; wino is not the drink of the dipsomaniac, but of the viveur." j Tho popular cup of tea is ruthlessly condemned. When the milk and sugar contained in it aro eliminated, the commission says, there is no nutritive value left, and the alkaloid in it is essentially a stimulent capable of only unlocking, but not supplying, energy. The tannin and its derivatives exercise a particiilarly unfavourable influence on digestion, as they not only form insoluble compounds with the proteid elements of food, but they also precipitate the enzymes which render the foods soluble and capable of being absorbed. Tea, however, seems to have no unfavourable effect when taken with bread and butter and sweet things. Ginger beer, which was also examined, is neither good | nor bad so far as digestion, is con--1 corned.