SC - Re: Questions

[marilyn traber]

Aine of Wyvernwood wrote:
> 
> > On the other hand, since the addiction to alcohol is both psychological
> > as well as physical, it is very likely more the presence of the flavor
> > or aroma of the wine or spirit in the food that will do the damage, and
> > the effects that this will have on an alcoholic will vary from case to
> > case.
> 
> no, he was on antibuse...he ate stew that had wine added and cooked with the stew, was
> totally unaware that the wine was there...His reaction was due entirely to the fact that
> there still was alcohol in the stew after simmering for 6 hours...  the next day I
> talked to the pharmacist [not the doc] who knew a bit more about chemical reactions and
> antibuse in particular... he stated that for the antibuse to have caused a reaction that
> not matter how long the stew cooked there still had to be some alcohol in  it...
> or the violent reaction that he suffered would not have taken place...
> 
> NO alcohol does not completely cook out of food, not matter what anyone thinks.  I have
> seen the research...sorry that is a complete myth.

I confess I'm not familiar with antibuse or its effects, and neither are
the two alcoholics I spoke to earlier this evening (one of them being a
research chemist, BTW).

However, what you say doesn't really disprove anything that I have said,
which was that most, but not all, of the alcohol can be removed by
sufficient heating, that cases differ individually, and it is not
necessarily the mere presence of a microscopic trace of alcohol that
produces a harmful reaction in an alcoholic.

To make the blanket statement that the idea that alcohol can be cooked
out of foods is a myth, is far more illogical, and far less accurate in
truth, than the original claim itself. If one insists on making blanket
generalizations, one will be wrong most of the time. If it were simply
untrue, then many more alcoholics would react badly to an extremely wide
spectrum of foods that they normally consider quite innocuous. Vanilla
extract comes to mind. Bread, too.

Sometimes it's hard to resist the temptation to try to debunk what you
perceive as myths, but it does the truth no service to simply take a
series of related statements and assume they are all false.

I also have seen the research, and although it was very likely the same
research, because it does support your claim to some extent, I can say
that, after talking to colleagues of the people that DID the research,
you may have read things into the research findings that the researchers
did not intend.

Adamantius  
_____________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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