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 Wisconsin University 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.
Heart trigger
Clotting is important for patients who are at risk of a heart attack because they have hardened arteries.
A heart attack is triggered when a clot lodges in one of these arteries supplying the heart.
Many patients are prescribed low-dose aspirin as this cuts the ability of the blood to form these dangerous clots.
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.
Caloo Calay I chortled in my joy. What more can I say. Guinness is as good for your heart as aspirin. Take that T-totalers! Little red wine, little of the dark stuff...I may damn well live forever.
4 comments:
Every year they say something rediculous like "cabbage causes cancer!" and then turn around 5 years later and retract said statement with "cabbage cures cancer". The scientific community is only as reliable as the science behind it - and sometimes the science behind it doesn't really seem like science at all. I tend to place all of the "this is good for you" and "this is bad for you" hoo-ha from the nutritional scientific community in the circular file and purge it quickly from my brain as the only thing I'm sure of is that 5 years from now they'll announce yet another "scientific study" that proves the exact opposite of what they told us today. Everything in mass quantities is bad for you - everything - period. Even oxygen can kill you if you consume too much of it pure and unfiltered. Bah to nutritional scientists! Bah I say!
Seriously? Why doubt this? Plus Guinness has been claiming that it's good for you for like 80 years. And just taste it--you know it's good for you. I might doubt cabbage...but not Guinness.
I've had Guinness - along with many other different types of alcohol - however I have both scientific and intimate physical proof that alcohol in no form is "good for you". That's just fact. And considering I've been almost completely alcohol free for 3+ years with nothing but improving health to show for it (note when I did drink I drank a lot of Guinness) once again - I think it's a load of hooey designed to make people a. have a good excuse for drinking "hey it's good for me - why not have another" and b. sell more guinness "hey it's good for you - why not buy some more".
I have the opposite experience with alcohol myself. I find it a wonderful social lubricant when used in moderation, of course, "all things in moderation" and so on... And as far as science and alcohol goes, a glass wine a day is supposedly better for you than no glass of wine a day - health-wise.
Of course, I don't care for Guinness. :-)
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