TEA V. ALCOHOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13501, 27 July 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

TEA V. ALCOHOL.

':;.'' SOME MEDICAL VIEWS. '"■ :,Th !•:" Hospital, a well-known medical ' publication, which some years ago made, a special investigation touching the nutritive properties of New Zealand meat, and pronounced strongly in its favour, has undertaken 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 rise of light wine as a beverage, and to the use of the French wines ill particular.,. Careful experiments have shown that these wines, taken in moderate quantities with food. have a favourable effect on digestion. The wines examined included French, German, Australian, California!), Spanish, and Italian. The report says that the Australian. Californian, 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, they must be considered on the basis of port, .sherry, and Madeira, and used as such. The German wines are not so reliable as the French, as they arc more liable to adulteration, and even when they are not adulterated are often the result of a second or third fermentation. 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 diluted with about an equal quantity of water to obtain the best digestive results, but it is immaterial whether this dilution takes place inside or outside the stomach. The wine should be sipped slowly, so that it may be thoroughly mixed ! with ' the foods. Champagne, on account .of the carbon dioxide it contains, is a i powerful stimulant to gastric digestion, and is exceedingly useful to persons suffering from certain forms. of dyspepsia. ! . Further, the commission declares that : "it cannot 100 emphatically be insisted on ! that light wine is essentially a temperance beverage, and that its alcoholic content is in main- cases a character of secondary importance. One can only get sufficient alcohol from wine to produce its full action of making one drunk by taking sufficient extract to make one ill; wine is not the drink of the dipsomaniac, but of the viveur." The popular cup of tea is Ruthlessly condemned. When the milk and sugar contained in it arc eliminated, the commission says, there is no nutritive value left, and the alkaloid in it is essentially a stimulant capable of only unlocking, but not supplying, energy. The tannin' and its derivatives exercise a particularly unfavourable influence on digestion, as they not only form insoluble compounds with the protein elements of food, but they also precipitate the enzymes which render the food 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 concerned.