The best score is for Everclear, neat of course, with a calorie-to-alcohol ratio of 18.9 (lower is better). Other drinks with good scores (up to 25) are most spirits, and certain wines, champagnes, ciders and beers. Gin tonic is 25.5, vodka Red Bull 27.5, and Strongbow cider 28.8.

Know your drink's nutrition

Those scoring above 30 include Guinness, Heineken, Carlsberg and Hoegaarden. Da bomb, Irish Car Bomb, is 32.3, and is only 6.9% ABV.

Passing 40 include Jager Bomb (47.9), mainly due to the Red Bull, giving an alcohol content of only 9.3%. No wonder i aint a fan. Rum n Coke is 37.7, margarita 41.7

And Baileys at 67.8, mainly coz its low alcohol at 17%, thus increasing the ratio.

It’s also based on 360ml, and i dont think u’d drink 360ml of Baileys.

So the chart is about which drinks give you the biggest bang with the least calories if u consume the same volume, ie 360ml.

And the worst of all to get fat, not high?? It’s Becks no-alcohol beer, with a score of 326.7! That’s because the alcohol is only 0.3%. You’ll need to swallow a case to get hit.

The site, Get Drunk Not Fat, even has an FB page.

If ur a drinker n wanna control your weight, this previous post might help.

I also came across this other site on calories in some mainstream cocktails. A Martini scores 160 calories, and red wine at 140. One of my fave dynamites, the Long Island Iced Tea, hits 780, tho am sure dats a mistake. Other sites put it at between 300-600.

The lowest at merely 100 calories are shots of liquor. Good ol slammers.

This vid does a great introduction to the issue:

I think somewhere between your eyes and your brain, there’s a neuro-malfunction, caused by too much alcohol.

Or maybe its coz ur less fussy / more open when ur whacked. Or maybe coz ur vision gets progressively blurry.

Maybe its coz ur usually drunk during the second stage of the evening, and lights are usually dimmer by then. And choices are reduced as well, the later it gets.

Could be all of the above. That’s my own analysis anyway.

A study has shown that alcohol makes everything look more attractive, not just d opposite sex. How nice. A luuurv & beauty drug.

1862?? More like 8,000 B.C.

Also, a uni in London discovered that alcohol affects the part of the brain that is capable of detecting symmetry. (Humans tend to prefer faces that are symmetrical.) Surprisingly, men are less prone to lose this ability that women.

Fortunately i’ve managed to maintain a certain QC (quality control). Cant say the same for some guys/gals.

In extreme cases, booze causes a guy to flirt with a chick who’s got…. balls. Nuts. As in testicles. (But for many white guys here, they cant tell the difference / they have no QC anyway, drunk or sober. Haha. Same goes for the white girls in Langkawi.)

Anyway, there’s a poll that u can participate in on the right sidebar. Dont worry! Its anonymous.

Either way, sall goood. Alcohol & beer goggles have got millions of people laid over centuries.

I tend not to step-in if i see a buddy with beer goggles doin his thang. Coz who knows, he might need to get laid, badly.

U gotta set limits tho. I’ll for sure forcibly restrain him/pepper-spray him, or slap the goggles off if its a tranny. Or granny.

Been havin a cold for a coupla days, tho i been partying a lot d last few days too. Including popping Clarinese and Panadols, and washing ‘em down with bourbon n vodka. Explains why i havent updated here for quite a few days.

I tot i’d check out whats the best way to feel better, utilizing booze rather than chems. My grandma, she always recommended some brandy (neat) with lemon.

I hope we all got some grandma remedies that we can remember, n pass on. Am sure they have some basis.

Vodka, rum both oso can i guess

What Granny recommended was kinda like a Hot Toddy. A Hot Toddy is not referring to the regular toddy most people think of, but it refers to a hot cocktail, made of a shot of either whisky, rum or brandy, mixed with hot tea, plus lemon and honey. It’s a well-known and popular remedy to make your nose and respiratory system feel relief, especially from congestion or a runny nose. And its all-natural. And u could probably get a nice lil buzzzz.

I think all liquors are fine. Avoid cold beers tho (which i didnt).

Anyway, came across a piece on Liquor Snob. Here are some of the recommended hot cocktails to relief the symptoms of a cold.

Hot T&T

The Ts here are for toddy & tequila. Boil water, pour into a mug, add a teabag. Sink a shot of tequila, squeeze some lime, and a tablespoon of honey. Sip ‘n enjoy.

Tequila does d job too

The Hot-Headed Cuban (aka Tony Montana)

The Hot Headed Cuban is derived from a combination of the Mojito and the Crazy Cuban. Its meant to relieve sore throat, stuffy head and nose, and body aches. This drink requires mint tea. Add one shot of your favorite rum to the hot tea, and half a shot of Amaretto, and squeeze in half a lime.

To upgrade the cocktail from Hot Headed Cuban to Tony Montana, sprinkle in some coke, and scream “Puto!” after u down it.

"So wotchusayin, u name a fokin cockotail ofter me now u stoopid fok"

Spicy Hot Toddy

Fill a tea pot with hot water, add freshly-squeezed lemon juice, a shot of bourbon and throw in some Jalapeño peppers, either fresh or pickled.

Anyway, just got back from a long Sunday afternoon of drinking at Luna Bar, and my cold seems to have significantly lessened. I had vodka, whisky, and a few tequila shots. So maybe any liquor helps!

So whats new.

Compared to drinkers, sober people have a 51% higher chance of dying younger. Second best is heavy drinkers, and best is moderate drinkers (three drinks a day).

Shouldn’t booze be given out by governments for free then? Whats all this bullshit about tax??

There’s some great health news about cider too, which i’ll post soon.

This basically means even heavy drinkers live longer than non-drinkers. Dont know if i consider that good news. Dont wanna be around too long either.

I pity all those people who didnt drink all their lives and then died. Rugiii.

Go ahead, ride it

Quote: “One important reason is that alcohol lubricates so many social interactions, and social interactions are vital for maintaining mental and physical health. As was pointed out last year, nondrinkers show greater signs of depression than those who allow themselves to join the party.”

So go join the party!

DIA (not to be confused with but possibly related to d hospital term DOA – dead on arrival), happens with very quick, or excessive consumption of alcohol. Or both.

Liquor mostly. I doubt it works with beer, unless u do helluva lot.

Goes down too easy

U forget stuff dat happened. Like ordering more drinks, then only realizing d next day -  coz yor pockets are outta cash.

Or d last bar u were at. Or driving home. Or even sex! (Similar to cock amnesia.)

I once crossed busy Jln Ampang to get to another party n dont remember that, and d next two hours. Haha

Daaamn.

Unfortunately some people cant behave appropriately when under DIA, and wont even remember it.

Dont remember

Its actually pretty amazing. At the time when ur under DIA, ur generally a perfectly-functioning human, able to do whatever your brain normally does, from the mundane and basic to the complicated, like pissing, havin conversations, calculating cash, driving, eating. But d next day, it’s like it never happened! Was your brain off?

Its like sleep-walking. Kinda weird. I used to sleep-walk too.

I guess over-drinking affects d brain cells dat control short-term memory. It sucks coz many times, u REALLY had a great time, but its been fuckin erased from your memory forever. I think besides a hangover, this is what i hate most about booze.

U gotta rely on eye-witness reports to fill u in. That dont always work either, coz if u dont remember what u dont remember, u wouldnt even ask. So sometimes u’ll NEVER know dat u had DIA.

D other way to jog your memory a lil are photos of d scenes.

Don't remember

Some research done indicates that “These periods of amnesia are primarily “anterograde,” meaning that alcohol impairs the ability to form new memories while the person is intoxicated, but does not typically erase memories formed before intoxication.”

Praise the lord! So its just ‘temporary brain damage’. Cool.

However the prick also concluded that “occurrence of blackouts is a powerful indicator of alcoholism.” Yea right.

There’s also DIA-within-DIA. Besides not remembering d next day, u dont remember during the piss-up what u said like three fuckin minutes ago. Like “where do u live?!”. Askin d same goddam question five times in a night. Dats cause its been documented that your memory in such situations lasts two minutes.

Wow. Fish brain.

Don't remember

This part of the report about ‘state-dependent memory’ is cool – “It is not uncommon to hear stories of drinkers who stash alcohol or money while intoxicated, and locate the hiding places only after becoming intoxicated again.” Haha!

Basically DIA stems from an inability to transfer information from short-term to long-term storage. Your neurons are in a twist. D report notes “a key predictor of blackouts is the rate at which subjects consumed their drinks.” So it happens more to fast drinkers.

I say watch those shots. More than one a minute and ur askin for DIA. One every 90 seconds should be fine.

Dis drink went down like crazy at d blog launch and d first anniversary party recently.

It appears that TIME Magazine has done a feature on d benefits of coconut water, among them, a hangover cure! Haha!

So if u drink Kelapa Rock, u can get whacked AND rehydrate AND cure the potential hangover, with d same drink! Ultracool.

For the health-conscious wackos

Quote: “Coconut water is low in calories and has no fat and a lot less sugar than most juices. But its most important attribute, at least among barflies, is that it is an excellent rehydrater.” Niice.

It goes on to state that “an FAO official noted that the drink contains the same five electrolytes found in human blood (Gatorade has only two). He called coconut water “the fluid of life.” Indeed, in medical emergencies, coconut water has been used intravenously when conventional hydration fluids were not available.”

Daamn. U can stick it straight into your bloodstream?

The magic juice has also recently caught on among athletes. There’s also been a “proliferation of coconut-water cocktails”.

OK, time to come up with more kelapa recipes then.

Kelapa, u memang rock la brudder

Coz those who turn red are Communists.

Just kiddin.

Its seems to be mainly a Chinese thing, but then again not all Chinese alcos turn red-faced. Statistically, its one of every two.

Turning red after drinks is known as alcohol flush reaction (AFR) or ‘Asian Glow’. Haha!

It’s actually caused by a genetic mutation – of the ALDH gene. In these people, the gene works too slowly or fails in processing alcohol.

Dats summing shit up for brain-damaged people.

For non-brain damaged folks, here are d details.

Those who experience alcohol flush reaction have a missing or deficient ALDH2 enzyme. So there’s a buildup of sumtin called acetaldehyde due to the slow enzyme.

Ethanol (alcohol) is poisonous in larger doses, really, so our bodies have evolved ways to break ‘em down before it has a chance to build up. Nice. While your brain is enjoying its temporary loss of inhibition, your liver is doing its best to clear the alcohol out of your system before it kills you or sumtin.

Spot d glower

The liver’s ultimate goal is to turn ethanol into harmless acetic acid (ie vinegar), which can be easily removed in urine. D problem is that in order to become vinegar, ethanol has to be converted to acetaldehyde, which is as nasty as it sounds.

In fact, acetaldehyde is even more toxic than ethanol. Some of d effects of drinking—turning red, increased heart rate—are actually symptoms of acetaldehyde poisoning. Certain versions of genes can cause a logjam in ethanol processing and a buildup of acetaldehyde. Its this build-up dat causes the Asian Glow.

It also leads to immediate and severe hangover symptoms. These people are therefore less likely to become alcoholics.

No shit.

“Flushing, after consuming one or two alcoholic beverages, includes a range of symptoms: dizziness, nausea, headaches, an increased pulse, occasional extreme drowsiness, and occasional skin swelling and itchiness. These unpleasant side effects often prevent further drinking that may lead to further inebriation, but the symptoms can lead to mistaken assumption that the people affected are more easily inebriated than others.” – The Psychology Wiki.

So why is it mostly East Asians that have AFR? Its just genetical misadventure. Bad luck.

There’s a theory that its linked to consumption of rice over d centuries.

If ur one of ‘em, u have my sympathies. However there’s hope! There’re cures available out there online. No idea if they work!

Bigot.

Hangovers are a bitch, a bitch whose antidote i once wrote about (bacon!). Am waiting for some smart-ass prick to create a hangover cure in a pill. I’ll take a carton right off the bat.

Probably the best-known cure at the mo is staying drunk.

I did some research and the info below seems accurate. Whisky & brandy consistently get high marks for giving hangovers.

So its worth knowing.

If u gotta be an alco, be an informed alco.

VODKA

Good to know: Vodka is least likely to give you a hangover.
Vodka is made by fermenting grains or crops such as potatoes with yeast. It’s then purified and repeatedly filtered, often through charcoal, strange as it sounds, until it’s as clear as possible. (Some vodkas, like Smirnoff, are triple-filtered, making it as close to clean ethanol as possible.)

CALORIES: Because vodka contains no carbohydrates or sugars, it contains only calories from ethanol (around 7 calories per gram), making it the least-fattening alcoholic beverage. So a 35ml shot of vodka would contain about 72 calories.

PROS: Vodka is the ‘cleanest’ alcoholic beverage because it contains hardly any ‘congeners‘ – impurities normally formed during fermentation. These play a big part in how bad your hangover is.

Despite its high alcohol content – around 40 per cent – vodka is the least likely alcoholic drink to leave you with a hangover.

CONS: Vodka is often a factor in binge drinking deaths (no shit? Haha!) because it is relatively tasteless when mixed with fruit juices or other drinks.

HANGOVER SEVERITY: 3/10

.

BEER

Slow mover: Low in alcohol, beer is the least dangerous to drink.

Beer is made by fermenting barley. Hops are added for flavour and yeast to make the grains ferment into sugar and alcohol.

CALORIES: It’s the most calorie-rich alcoholic beverage – one pint (468ml) contains between 170 and 200 calories.

PROS: Beer is the least dangerous to drink and makes you feel you drunk the slowest. It has the lowest alcohol content – between 3 and 6 per cent for lager, and up to 8 per cent for ale and stout.

A pint also contains more than a quarter of an adult’s recommended dose of Vitamin B folate, which stops the build-up of homocysteinea chemical linked to heart attacks.

CONS: Beer is high in compounds called purines, which boost the levels of uric acid in the blood, according to a study at Massachusetts General Hospital. This can form crystals in joints, leading to painful attacks of gout.

Meanwhile, research published in the International Journal of Cancer showed that one pint a day adds a 10 per cent risk of bowel cancer, while two pints a day increases the risk by 25 per cent.

HANGOVER SEVERITY: 4/10

.

WHITE WINE

White wine is made from the fermented juice of grapes stripped of their seeds and skins.

CALORIES: Around 130 calories per 175 ml glass; slightly more in sweeter wines.

PROS: American researchers found that grape flesh contains the chemicals tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol, which help lower artery-clogging LDL cholesterol.

CONS: It’s the sulphites formed naturally or added to white wine as preservatives to stop it going brown, which are the most likely cause of the ‘white wine hangover’ many people complain of.
Sulphites also carry the risk of an allergic reaction which can worsen symptoms such as a headache, or asthma. White wines also wear away tooth enamel faster, making teeth more sensitive.

HANGOVER SEVERITY: 6/10

.

RED WINE

Red wine is made from fermented grape juice – but unlike white wine, with the skin and pips included. It’s then left to mature for a minimum of three years, during which pigments from the skins leech out and colour the wine red.

CALORIES: Around 120 calories in a standard glass – it’s slightly lower in sugar content than white wine.

PROS: Contains more reservatrol – a plant antioxidant – than white wine. This helps to prevent blood clots and reduce inflammation, which is now considered to play a key role in heart disease. Also, the pips and skins used in red wines contain tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol, chemicals which help lower artery-clogging LDL cholesterol.

CONS: Red wine drinkers can get worse hangovers than beer or white wine drinkers. Because of the way it’s made, red wine produces two types of alcohol – ethanol and methanol. The liver processes the ethanol part of the drink first and leaves methanol until last. ‘As a result, it’s likely to be floating around in the body for a lot longer than ethanol, giving you that familiar “morning after” feeling, says Professor Jones.

HANGOVER SEVERITY: 7/10

.

CHAMPAGNE

Fast-acting baby.

Champagne and sparkling wine are made in roughly the same way as wine – but then more yeast is added and it’s left to ferment in the bottle a second time, producing carbon dioxide.

CALORIES: An average 175 ml glass of Champagne contains 133 calories, slightly more than a glass of white wine because syrup is added to improve taste.

PROS: The antioxidants in Champagne may help protect your brain against damage incurred during a stroke and against neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, according to a team of researchers from the University of Reading. They found that high levels antioxidants, called caffeic acid and tyrosol, helped protect brain cells from damage.

CONS: The bubbles speed up the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream. And contrary to popular belief, Champagne won’t lift your spirits – alcohol affects brain receptors in the same way, whatever its source.

‘Alcohol basically works in the same way in the brain receptors as Valium,’ says Professor Jones. ‘It depresses brain activity and relieves anxiety. You might think you’re in a good mood, but it’s more likely the result of alcohol causing “disinhibition”, making you more talkative and exhibitionist.’

HANGOVER SEVERITY: 7/10

.

SCOTCH WHISKY

Whisky or Scotch is distilled from fermented grains, such as barley or wheat, then aged in wooded casks.

CALORIES: About 80 calories per 35ml shot.

PROS: Single malt whiskies have been found to contain high levels of ellagic acid, according to Dr Jim Swan of the Royal Society of Chemists. This powerful acid inhibits the growth of tumours caused by certain carcinogens and kills cancer cells without damaging healthy cells.

CONS: Whisky ‘madness’ – erratic and unpredictable behaviour – is a common problem with drinking whisky. It’s caused by the way most people drink it – neat, explains Professor Jones.
His experiments show that among people drinking the same amount of ethanol, those drinking it in the form of spirits, such as whisky, had the quickest and highest peak in the blood alcohol concentration, which occurred less than an hour after drinking began.

“If you drink any alcohol on an empty stomach, it can compare with getting it intravenously, ” says the prof. (How cool!)

‘To slow absorption down, you could take it very much diluted or along with a rich, calorie-dense ingredient such as cream, as in Baileys or Irish coffee.’”

Whisky also contains lots of congeners, which tend to form during the ageing process in oak casks. A study by the BMA found that as a result, Bourbon Whiskey is twice as likely to cause a hangover as the same amount of vodka.

HANGOVER SEVERITY: 8/10

.

BRANDY

Hangover hell? Brandy contains high amounts of impurities

Brandy is a spirit distilled from red wine. Fine brandies are aged for extra flavour in wooden casks.

CALORIES: Around 80 in every 35ml shot.

PROS: Because brandy is a distillation of red wine, it contains a high concentration of antioxidants which mop-up ‘free radicals’ which, it’s claimed, can damage the body organs and tissues.
Australian scientists discovered that the antioxidants created during the distilling process mean that 30ml of good brandy would give the equivalent antioxidant hit of the daily recommended intake of vitamin C.

CONS: It could give you the worst headache of all, according to research at London’s National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. This is closely followed by red wine, then rum, whisky and gin. Not only does brandy contain at least 40 per cent alcohol, the high quality cask-aged variety is likely to have the highest amounts of congeners, which are formed during the lengthy storage and fermentation process.

Professor Jones says:  “Brandy contains literally hundreds of different volatile compounds, which gives it the distinctive pleasant smell but also contributes to the hangover.”

HANGOVER SEVERITY: 9/10

.

The next time u get trashed, u can come up with your own rating.

Good luck!

The health benefits of booze have already been featured on this blog, here & here.

As science and research skills improve, the health arguments for booze are probably more than against! Well, a lot of us already knew dat.

Best part is, booze is a God-given product dat’s 100% natural!

Bring back university bars. Sell booze in hospitals. Schools should teach about d benefits of alcohol.

Dammit, drinking should be made mandatory.

A healthy start for the morning

Aint shittin. A study by Univ of California confirms this. This link was mailed to me by a reader, Eden.

Alcohol was also recently documented to reduce the chance of heart attack by 50%.

All d sweeping prejudices about how booze (in moderation) is bad for you is obviously unfounded. As technology and research continue to improve, they gonna keep discovering more good news about d benefits of alcohol. Haha. Stop eating, start drinking.

Anyway, back to beer. Barley husks contain silicon, which is good for bones, and since barley is the main ingredient for beer, drink beer.

U gotta be pretty dumb to prefer barley husk over beer.