From Special Kansas City Irish Fest London Bureau Health Correspondent Rob Shergold:
Guinness Good For You - Official
BBC News-The old advertising slogan "Guinness is Good for You" may be true after all, according to researchers. A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.
Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from University of Wisconsin told a conference in the US.
Guinness were told to stop using the slogan decades ago - and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink.
The Wisconsin team tested the health-giving properties of stout against lager by giving it to dogs who had narrowed arteries similar to those in heart disease.
They found that those given the Guinness had reduced clotting activity in their blood, but not those given lager. The researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, that the most benefit they saw was from 24 fluid ounces of Guinness - just over a pint - taken at mealtimes.
They believe that "antioxidant compounds" in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for the health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.
Reviving the old adverts for Guinness might be problematic - at least in the EU. The original campaign in the 1920s stemmed from market research - when people told the company that they felt good after their pint, the slogan was born. Draft legislation could outlaw any health claims in adverts for alcohol in Europe.
In England, post-operative patients used to be given Guinness, as were blood donors, because of its high iron content.
Pregnant women and nursing mothers were at one stage advised to drink Guinness - the present advice is against this.
Of course, if Guinness is good for you then Boulevard Stout, a product superior in every way to Guinness, will soon be shown to regrow severed limbs and raise the dead. I'll do some extensive testing this weekend and see.
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3 comments:
They gave 24 fluid ounces of Guinness to dogs?! Who came up with that idea? And then what white-coat, said, "That's a good idea. Let's do a double-blind study, giving dogs beer. We'll have a laugh, we will!"
Woof.
It is a known fact that all Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat will do your Christmas Shopping for you, too
I once saw a bottle of Pale Ale lift up a car to save a trapped baby.
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