New festive research has confirmed that, contrary to popular belief, alcohol does not cause indigestion symptoms such as heartburn, belching and bloating.
But it may slow down digestion after a rich meal, according to Dr Mark Fox, of the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK.
The finding is one of the annual fare of whacky seasonal articles in the Christmas editions of the medical journals.
Dr Fox and his team compared the effects of drinking white wine or black tea with a cheese fondue followed by a shot of cherry schnapps or water, on 20 healthy adults.
The food moved through the stomach significantly faster with tea or water than with wine or schnapps. Appetite was reduced with wine and schnapps. But no difference was seen in indigestion symptoms.
They write on the website of the British Medical Journal that: "Healthy readers should be reassured that they can continue to enjoy this traditional meal with the beverage of their choice without undue concern about postprandial digestive discomfort."
A further alcohol-based study in the journal refutes the Danish myth that submerging your feet in alcohol will get you drunk.
Dr Peter Lommer Kristensen from the Hillerod Hospital in Denmark, asked three adult volunteers to submerge their feet in a washing-up bowl containing three bottles of vodka, for three hours.
Half-hourly blood samples and self-reports of drunkenness showed no effect. The researchers say the study has many implications, for example, driving a vehicle or skippering a boat with boots full of vodka seems to be safe, and brewery workers cannot become intoxicated by ‘falling’ into a brewery vat.
Lastly, Dr John Axelsson from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has shown that people suffering from disturbed sleep were rated as less attractive by 65 impartial observers.
He concludes that judgments about health and attractiveness support the anecdotal importance of "beauty sleep".
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