Fruit cocktails, Reuters photo
I love scientific studies that seem to have only been conducted get a press release out of it. I’ve always called it Yahoo! science, because they consistently crop up in Yahoo’s most popular stories (where I found this one), and because, well, it’s science for yahoos. Attention is seldom paid in the final news article to how good the study actually was, just at what its purported findings are. Ah well. But they’re often fun!
As is the case today, when Yahoo! (actually Reuters) tells us that fruit may actually be even better for you when you mix it with rum. You don’t say? A study by researchers at Kasetsart University in Thailand and scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, found that “treating [fruit such as strawberries and blackberries] with alcohol increased in antioxidant capacity and free radical scavenging activity.” It sounds like the study was focusing on berries, rather than our beloved citrus, though. At any rate — it’s yet another reason to put real fruit in your drinks, instead of goofy chemically-flavored rums & vodkas. And let us not say anything about Rose’s Lime “Juice.” Ever.
April 21st, 2007 at 6:59 am
Of course, these sorts of articles always seem to neglect to mention that adding more than an ounce or so of alcohol tends to negate the health benefits, and increases your risk of hypertension and liver disease.