Alcohol Facts

Tags: Sleep, Tiredness, Drink, Wine, Alcohol, Body, Human Body, Health, Interesting

Fact Page: Staying awake for 17 hours is the same for your body as drinking 2 glasses of wine.
Date Added: 2012-04-24 13:03:01
Fact Category: Health Fact

Tags: Wine, Alcohol, Bottle, Drink

Fact Page: The purpose of the indentation at the bottom of a wine bottle is to strengthen the structure of the bottle.
Date Added: 2011-09-29 15:11:01
Fact Category: Food and Drink Fact

Dr. Van Straten, M. The Benefits of Booze. The Express (London), July 23, 2002, Features, p. 35.

Tags: Inflammation, Alcohol, Drink, Health

Fact Page: One or two alcohol drinks a day can be anti-inflammatory.
Date Added: 2011-09-29 10:55:15
Fact Category: Health Fact

Many people are surprised to learn that orange juice naturally contains a small amount of alcohol. The alcohol has not been added to the juice, but is produced by fermentation which occurs when yeasts or bacteria convert sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol. There are many naturally-occurring yeasts on the orange peel, and some of them get into the juice when the orange is handled or squeezed.

Paul Davis from the USDA Market Quality Research Division measured the amount of ethanol in citrus fruits at harvest (ethanol is the "drinking alcohol" - the main form of alcohol in wines, beers and spirits). He found large variations according to the variety of fruit and also according to the month of harvest. Fruit picked towards the end of the harvest season was highest in ethanol (because the yeasts have had longer to convert sugar to alcohol). The exception was the Valencia Orange, which had a fairly constant alcohol content throughout the season.

The amounts that Paul Davis measured were very low, the highest being just under 0.07% alcohol by weight (equivalent to around 0.09% alcohol by volume) in Valencia Oranges.

After the orange is picked the ethanol content continues to increase, depending on how long and in what conditions the orange is stored. To reduce spoilage, fruit is sometimes stored in an artificial atmosphere. Davis also treated his fruits with fungicide. After eight weeks of storage he obtained ethanol readings up to 0.31% ABW (0.39% ABV).

In many countries any drink with less than 0.5% ABV can legally be described as non-alcoholic, because your body can metabolise the alcohol as fast as you consume the drink. Although all orange juice contains alcohol, the quantity is low enough that you won't get intoxicated from it, even if you drink many glasses of it. However in places with zero-tolerance rules against driving with any measurable alcohol in your blood, you might need to be careful if you are a very heavy orange juice drinker.

Paul Davis focused his research on citrus fruits, but other fruits such as grapes and peaches also have alcohol in their juice.

Tags: Alcohol, Orange, Orange Juice, Juice, Fruit

Fact Page: Orange juice naturally contains a small amount of alcohol.
Date Added: 2011-09-29 10:32:55
Fact Category: Food and Drink Fact

Tags: Alcohol, Mineral, Human, Life

Fact Page: All 13 minerals necessary for human life can be found in alcohol beverages.
Date Added: 2011-04-20 06:00:06
Fact Category: Food and Drink Fact

The scorpion's body is covered with a hard layer of chitin, which forms an armor to protect against desiccation and predators. The scorpion's exoskeleton contains a number of raised ridges and valleys, called "apodemes", which serve as attachment spots for the internal muscles. These muscles are attached in such a manner that they can curl the limbs and pull them inwards, but cannot pull them outward. To straighten its appendages, a scorpion must force blood into them, using hydraulic pressure to push them into a straightened position.

Now if the tail is held in readiness to sting, as one would expect, then there is probably some tension between the hydraulic pressure tending to straighten it out and the muscles, which would ten to curl it toward the body. Now alcohol could cause a sudden dehydration of the body fluids along the back, leading to a loss of hydraulic pressure. Then the already-tensed muscles would pull the tail into a tight curl, inadvertently causing the stinger to strike the scorpion. Whether the stinger is capable of penetrating the tough carapace on the top of the scorpion's main, cephalothorax section is another issue entirely.

Another possibility is that the alcohol simply causes a sharp contraction of the muscles exposed to it, which the hydraulic pressure would be unprepared to counter.

Tags: Scorpion, Alcohol, Insect, Bug, Interesting

Fact Page: Even a small amount of alcohol placed on a scorpion will make it go crazy and sting itself to death.
Date Added: 2011-02-27 08:54:54
Fact Category: Animal Fact

Absinthe is historically described as a distilled, highly alcoholic (45%-74% ABV) beverage. It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, commonly referred to as "grande wormwood", together with green anise and sweet fennel. Absinthe traditionally has a natural green colour but can also be colourless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as la fée verte (the Green Fairy).

Although it is sometimes mistakenly called a liqueur, absinthe is not bottled with added sugar and is therefore classified as a spirit. Absinthe is unusual among spirits in that it is bottled at a very high proof but is normally diluted with water when consumed.

Absinthe originated in the canton of Neuchatel in Switzerland. It achieved great popularity as an alcoholic drink in late 19th- and early 20th-century France, particularly among Parisian artists and writers. Owing in part to its association with bohemian culture, consumption of absinthe was opposed by social conservatives and prohibitionists. Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Vincent van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Aleister Crowley, and Alfred Jarry were all known drinkers of absinthe.

Absinthe has been portrayed as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug. The chemical thujone, present in small quantities, was blamed for its alleged harmful effects. By 1915, absinthe had been banned in the United States and in most European countries including France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although absinthe was vilified, no evidence has shown that it is any more dangerous than ordinary spirits. Its psychoactive properties, apart from those of alcohol, have been much exaggerated.

A revival of absinthe began in the 1990s, when countries in the European Union began to reauthorize its manufacture and sale. As of February 2008, nearly 200 brands of absinthe were being produced in a dozen countries, most notably in France, Switzerland, Spain, and the Czech Republic.

Tags: Absinthe, Alcohol, Wormwood, Hallucinogen, Hallucination

Fact Page: Absinthe is a high volume alcoholic drink (up to 89.9% in the UK) which contains a hallucinogenic ingredient called Wormwood and is banned in the United States.
Date Added: 2010-12-03 17:30:45
Fact Category: Food and Drink Fact

Tags: George Bush, Alcohol

Fact Page: When George W. Bush was 30 years old, he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Date Added: 2010-07-04 09:53:19
Fact Category: Politics Fact