Health Tips - Beer, Wine and the Sun
September 30th 2006 00:45
Health Tips Continued…
Continuing from Wednesday’s blog, here are a couple more pointers to keep your general health up to scratch:
5) Avoid excessive sunbaking: Like we have learnt in my tanning post, Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world due to Australian inhabitants not being equipped for the Australian sun. If you are of English descent for example, your ancestry adapted to the climate of that area and that’s how the melanin in the skin was lost, and whiter skin evolved. The strong rays of the Australian sun are too powerful for such fair skin and sunburn results. Remember to Slip, Slop, Slap and reapply your sunscreen often! Most sunscreen only lasts 2 hours and just think about how easy it is to lose track of time at the beach? Pay attention. Sunburn could be a precursor to a melanoma.
6) Alcohol worries: I know we all love the stuff, especially when the footy finals are nigh, but just think about what you are drinking and how it affects your health. Yes, a glass of red every night is relaxing, and beneficial, but it’s obvious that going hard with 12 beers on a Saturday night is not.
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Let’s compare wine and beer shall we? According to ninemsn Health, a can of beer has 138 calories but a glass of red wine only has 74. Now I’m aware there is more beer in a glass than wine so it should have more calories, but both servings are considered to be one ‘drink’, i.e. beer-drinkers don’t have less glasses of beer than wine drinkers do wine (it helps that beer is a thirst-quencher, and very watery so it’s much easier to drink than wine!). So in the end, you are consuming about double the calories if you opt for the beer. On a binge session you can put back say, 8 beers which is 1104 calories, and if you are on a 2000 calorie diet this is an extra half of your intake allowance – a great way to pack on the kilos!
8 glasses of wine on the other hand (about a bottle’s worth) amounts to only 592 calories – still significant but not as depressing as the beer tally. Also, beer has 11g of carbohydrates per serve (no doubt due to all those hops and barley) and wine only has 2g. And wine actually has health benefits (such as antioxidants and its good for your circulation) whereas you’d struggle to find any such benefits for beer. As you’ve probably guessed, this goes down to wine’s number one ingredient – grapes. Ahhh, the goodness of fruit!
So now you have a reason to get onto the wine - you too men! When you’re watchng the footy this arvo step away from the crowd and have a glass of merlot, and look on in shame at all your friends developing those beer bellies and be proud you are doing something beneficial for your health (if you drink in moderation of course!)
Image part of the GNU Free Documentation License
Continuing from Wednesday’s blog, here are a couple more pointers to keep your general health up to scratch:
5) Avoid excessive sunbaking: Like we have learnt in my tanning post, Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world due to Australian inhabitants not being equipped for the Australian sun. If you are of English descent for example, your ancestry adapted to the climate of that area and that’s how the melanin in the skin was lost, and whiter skin evolved. The strong rays of the Australian sun are too powerful for such fair skin and sunburn results. Remember to Slip, Slop, Slap and reapply your sunscreen often! Most sunscreen only lasts 2 hours and just think about how easy it is to lose track of time at the beach? Pay attention. Sunburn could be a precursor to a melanoma.
6) Alcohol worries: I know we all love the stuff, especially when the footy finals are nigh, but just think about what you are drinking and how it affects your health. Yes, a glass of red every night is relaxing, and beneficial, but it’s obvious that going hard with 12 beers on a Saturday night is not.
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Some of the good stuff...
8 glasses of wine on the other hand (about a bottle’s worth) amounts to only 592 calories – still significant but not as depressing as the beer tally. Also, beer has 11g of carbohydrates per serve (no doubt due to all those hops and barley) and wine only has 2g. And wine actually has health benefits (such as antioxidants and its good for your circulation) whereas you’d struggle to find any such benefits for beer. As you’ve probably guessed, this goes down to wine’s number one ingredient – grapes. Ahhh, the goodness of fruit!
So now you have a reason to get onto the wine - you too men! When you’re watchng the footy this arvo step away from the crowd and have a glass of merlot, and look on in shame at all your friends developing those beer bellies and be proud you are doing something beneficial for your health (if you drink in moderation of course!)
Image part of the GNU Free Documentation License
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