Down deep in her heart, my mother must have known that. While she did not partake, she did use it for cooking purposes. I would line up for seconds on her rum cake which leaked rum even after baking. Her Christmas Bourbon Balls were the Jell-O shots of today. The problem was that you gained eight pounds by the time you got mellow.
If we had only been able to have this discussion about the “10 Health Benefits of Whiskey” recently published by The Luxury Spot on that internet thing. Even so, I am sure moderation would have been her word back to me. I guess you can write an article about anything being good for you – in some way. The Scots and the Irish called whiskey “the water of life” adapted into their early language from the Latin aqua vitae. Of course, we all know distilled alcohol in the form of beer, wine and spirits came about from really bad drinking water in those days. One of the first things the Pilgrims built was a way to brew beer.
The authors of the above health piece assert that, if you are going to drink alcohol, whiskey can be good for you. They say it has:
- Lower calories than mixed drinks, beer and wine.
- Better heart health attributes by reducing blood clots, reduce risk of stroke and heart attacks and can even lower your cholesterol.
- Contains helpful antioxidants.
- Can reduce dementia.
- Can reduce stroke risk, fight stress, boost memory, aid indigestion, increase life span and as zero-carbs can help with diabetes.
- Gets rid of warts and in-grown toenails (not really, but I threw that in for fun just in case you were not yet convinced).
I am sure the Pork Council advocates that a pound of bacon a day is good for the sheen in your hair. Well, whether documented by full scientific studies or not, I chose to believe that a tumbler a day of good whiskey is now good for me. As they say: “Can’t hurt, and might help.”
The Guinness Factory on the River Liffey in Dublin claimed for years in their “adverts” that “Guinness is Good for You” but were stopped long ago by the regulators. Now some researchers at the University of Wisconsin say a pint of the Guinness may work as well as a low dose of aspirin to prevent heart clots. Again, the wonderful antioxidants are the reason, just like in whiskey.
Like them, I make no medical claims here, but a senior partner of my law firm had a long history of heart issues. On one of his several serious heart attacks, they called in the family for the very grave situation. He asked his heart specialist, a hunting buddy, “Well, can I have a drink?” He then had a stiff belt of whiskey and lived more than 10 more years after that until the big one got him (as he was hanging up his fishing rod from a trip when he was in his eighties). That sure convinced me.
In the event any of the health benefits are true, and because there could be snakes in the halls of these high-rise office buildings, I am having a tumbler tonight after the car is in the garage and the clients put away for the night. They say a little will help my health.
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