The Whole Food Bible

About Caffeine

Caffeine is the stimulant compound found in coffee and in black and green teas. It stimulates the central nervous system and also acts as a diuretic.

A cup of coffee contains 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine, whereas a cup of black tea contains 60 to 70 milligrams.
As an over-the-counter drug, caffeine is approved as both a stimulant and a diuretic. The effective dose of caffeine as a drug is about 200 milligrams. Caffeine is also approved as a food additive in cola drinks.
Doses of caffeine larger than 250 milligrams may cause insomnia or nervousness. This varies according to individual body weight and metabolism.
The estimated fatal dose of caffeine is 10 grams (10,000 milligrams), or the equivalent of 100 cups of coffee, or 167 cups of black tea. It is obviously highly unlikely that one would die from a caffeine overdose as a result of drinking coffee or tea.
Caffeine prolongs gastric secretion time. This can cause stomach acids to eat away at the stomach wall.
Large doses of caffeine can cause cardiac irregularities, including irregular heartbeat and decreased cardiac output. During pregnancy, caffeine crosses the placenta. In animal studies, high caffeine intake increased the incidence of spontaneous abortion, premature births, and birth defects.
Caffeine may interact with other prescription and nonprescription drugs in unpredictable or undesirable ways.

To sum it up, caffeinated beverages should be drunk judiciously. Keep your intake of these beverages moderate to avoid any undesirable side effects. Two cups of coffee or four cups of tea daily are well within the range of safe consumption.

GRAIN BEVERAGES

With a nutty flavor and an aroma somewhat similar to that of coffee, grain beverages do not contain the caffeine and acids found in coffee. They are made from various combinations of roasted grains, barley, chicory, and dandelion root and are sometimes flavored with cinnamon or some other aromatic spice. To the person who wants to drink less coffee, grain beverages offer a hot, flavorful drink that won’t keep you awake at night staring at the ceiling.

NATURAL SODAS

If you thirst for a good root beer, or if ginger ale does the trick for you, you will be pleased to find a growing selection of natural sodas in your local natural food store and in many supermarkets. Natural sodas are made with real fruits, herbs, natural flavors, and natural sweeteners, and without artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. At first you may be surprised to see a clear root beer, because root beer has always appeared brown. If root beer is made from concentrated natural flavors instead of roots and barks that contain natural dyes and pigments, there is no reason for it to be dark unless it has been artificially colored.

The sweeteners used in natural sodas vary. Many sodas labeled “natural” are in fact sweetened with fructose, which is commercially refined from corn syrup solids. The “purist” natural soda brands sweeten their beverages with fruit concentrates and honey. From a nutritional standpoint, the difference is that fruit concentrates and honey contain some nutrients as they occur in nature, whereas fructose is nutritionally devoid.

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

Throughout the course of history, humans have consumed a broad range of intoxicants of all kinds, from hallucinogenic mushrooms to mind-altering flowers, barks, cactus, and plant extracts. In fact, there is no known culture whose indigenous people do not use at least one, if not many, intoxicating substances. These substances are associated with various gods and spirit forces and have been influential in the formation of religions, shamanic rituals, and celebrations of all kinds.

A Social Intoxicant

Among the many intoxicants widely used today are alcoholic beverages, made either by the fermentation or the distillation of grains, fruits, and herbs. These beverages are believed to have been discovered by accident when primitive peoples drank the water from soaked fermented grains or fruits. Unexpectedly going into an altered state was something that often happened to the people of primitive cultures as they experimented with new and strange foods, as well as with various methods of food preparation, handling, and storage. The discovery of the potent intoxicating effects of fermented grain and fruit beverages led to ingenious methods by which beers and wines were made regularly as important beverages of many cultures. Methods of distillation eventually followed, producing thousands of different whiskies, brandies, and liquors, all of which are more highly concentrated and potent than fermented alcoholic beverages.

The worldwide use of alcoholic beverages makes alcohol the most widely used, and therefore the most influential, of all intoxicants. Alcoholic product manufacturing is a multibillion-dollar enterprise, and alcoholic beverages have played an enormous role in celebrations and festivities throughout the world as well as in the destruction of tribal cultures and urban and rural poor populations. The abuse of alcohol is the single largest substance abuse problem worldwide. Approximately 10 percent of all people who drink alcohol will become alcoholics.

Alcohol and Health

Despite this, there is very little evidence that the consumption of moderate amounts of alcohol can cause any harm, except during pregnancy. In fact, regular intake of a small amount of alcohol may be of benefit to health. In the Framingham Heart Study of five thousand men, those who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol actually lived longer, with less incidence of cardiovascular disease, than those who drank either heavily or not at all. Furthermore, beers and wines are known to contain numerous nutrients and enzymes that are prophylactic and beneficial to digestion. Specific herbal wines and liqueurs are important in the pharmacology of numerous cultures. Pure distilled grain alcohol is the primary solvent used in the extraction of medicinal herbs into liquid. It is therefore an important part of each herbal extract and of herbal pharmacology as a whole. Alcohol, as both a beverage and medicinal agent, is well established throughout the human race.

The French Paradox

In a land blessed with Brie, pâté, and brilliant chefs, it is no wonder that the French have some of the highest per capita intakes of saturated fat on earth. What is a wonder, however, is the fact that the rate of heart disease in France is 2.5 times lower than it is in the United States. This situation, first identified in the 1980s, came to be known as the French Paradox. Why are the French able to consume a diet that would send scores of Americans to their graves and at the same time have such low rates of heart disease? The culprit, it turns out, is red wine.

Some of the chemicals in wine, called flavonoids, lower the levels of harmful cholesterol and prevent blood from clogging in the arteries. Flavonoids originate in the skins of wine grapes, which are only used in making red wine. Though white wine and grape juice have some preventive effect against heart disease, red wine has considerably more. Note that only a glass or two a day is recommended to achieve the best benefits.

In 1996 dark beer was added to the list of beverages with proven heart benefits. Turns out Guinness really is good for you! But then, the Irish knew that all along.

It is important to distinguish between the moderate intake of al coholic beverages and alcoholism. Moderate and responsible use of alcohol is a socially acceptable practice enjoyed among the people of most cultures worldwide. The chronic and abusive consumption of alcohol, however, is a factor in diseases of the heart, brain, liver, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract and is a major contributor to accidental death and injury. Here are a few health facts about alcohol:

Alcohol is a sedative-hypnotic drug, a potent nervous system depressant that acts as a narcotic in the brain, putting nerve cells “to sleep.”
Alcohol is both a diuretic and an anesthetic.
The overconsumption of alcohol can produce coma and death.
Alcohol has 7 calories per gram.
Alcohol can cause reduced motor control, slurred speech, blurred vision, numbness, erratic behavior, temporary amnesia, loss of reason, liver damage, kidney damage, brain damage, ulceration of the gastrointestinal tract, impaired digestion, fatigue, and lethargy.
Alcohol can contribute to cardiovascular disease, including arteriosclerosis, heart attack, and stroke.
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, low infant birth weight, stillbirths, and fetal abnormalities. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a growing problem among poor, pregnant, alcohol-dependent women in the United States.
Alcohol is an addictive drug. An estimated 10 million American adults abuse alcohol and are alcohol dependent.
Alcoholic intoxication has caused more traffic fatalities than the combined death tolls of the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

To sum up, drink alcoholic beverages judiciously. Keep your intake moderate to avoid any undesirable side effects.

Beer

Made from fermented grains instead of being distilled, beer is one of the oldest of all alcoholic beverages and was widely consumed in ancient Egypt. According to the strict standards of the Bavarian beer purity law, beer is made only from water, malted barley, hops, and yeast, with no adjuncts of any kind. This law was initiated by Bavarian brewers at a time when some European brewmasters were using sugar in their brewing process.

Breweries today use an astonishing variety of ingredients, many of them chemical. Some commercial breweries, like Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser, Michelob, Busch) and Latrobe Brewing (Rolling Rock) add rice to their beer. Many other breweries add foam stabilizers, clarifying enzymes, natural and artificial flavors, antioxidants, and artificial colors to their products.

This “test tube beer” is a far cry from what the Bavarians had in mind. By federal law, beer must contain over 0.5 percent alcohol. Most beers range from 3 percent to 8 percent alcohol, although this information is rarely given on a label. There is no upper limit to the amount of alcohol allowed in beer according to federal standards, though many states have set limits.

There are several different types of beer:

Ale Traditionally a pale, strongly hopped malt beverage, today ale refers to any beer made with fastacting yeast at room temperature.

Lager The word lager means “storage place” in German, and a lager beer is one that has been made with slow-acting yeast at a cellar temperature, usually between 45 and 55 degrees, then stored and aged for several weeks or months.

Bock This is a dark, heavy lager beer.

Porter A strong ale brewed with roasted malt for flavor and color, porter is nutty and aromatic.

Stout Darker, maltier, and more heavily hopped than a porter, stout is definitely the Babe Ruth of beers for flavor and punch.

The question naturally arises: how do you know what you are buying? Full disclosure is your only real assurance. Many fine breweries, especially the new microbreweries, proudly display their full ingredients right on the label and are equally clear that they use no additives or adjuncts of any kind. Brands like Sierra Nevada, Samuel Adams, Anchor Steam, and Catamount have taken the lead in full-disclosure labeling, which is not legally required. In other words, a beer can contain a myriad of chemical additives, none of which need appear on the label. Some breweries argue that required full-disclosure labeling would force them to reveal secret recipes. This position is weak. Even if you know the ingredients of another company’s beer, you don’t know the proportions and methods used. It is one thing to know a beer’s basic ingredients and quite another to reproduce the product.

Ideally you should look for an organic beer, produced entirely with ingredients that have not been exposed to agrichemicals. There are a few organic beers on the market today, but they are rare and hard to find.

Nonalcoholic Beer

Some consumers want a beer with little or no alcohol, simply for the refreshment. To this group breweries have responded with many brands of near beers, cereal beverages, and nonalcoholic beers. To qualify as a nonalcoholic beverage, a beer must contain less than 0.5 percent alcohol. If the product contains no detectable alcohol whatsoever, then it can be labeled “alcohol free.”

Nonalcoholic beers can be made in two ways. One method is to brew a real beer and then vacuumextract the alcohol. This allows for a full-bodied brew. The other method is to brew a beer and stop the brewing process before the beer contains more than 0.5 percent alcohol. Products made by this method tend to have less flavor. As with alcoholic beer, look for nonalcoholic beers with full-disclosure labeling.

Wine

Ever since the discovery of the intoxicating effects of the fermented juice of fruits and berries, wines have been important beverages throughout the world. From the high houses of wine production in southern France to regional makers of rice wines throughout Asia, skilled winemakers are prominent and celebrated in the societies in which they work. Wine is the primary beverage of traditional festivals of all kinds, particularly in Europe, the most well-developed area of wine production. Wine has played a major role in religion, especially Catholicism, whose tradition asserts that wine transmutes into the blood of Christ during Holy Communion. Not only does Catholicism give broad avenue for the consumption of wines throughout the year, but some of the world’s most respected vintages have come from remarkable monk winemasters in monasteries throughout Europe.

By strict definition according to European tradition, wine is fermented grape juice. In regional wines throughout the world, however, other fruits, grains, berries, and herbs are used. Wine as referred to here is made with grapes. If you are a wine lover, though, you might want to investigate the wines of other cultures, such as the rice sake of Japan. If you are highly experimental you may wish to taste the balché of the Mayans in the Yucatán, which is made in a hollowed log with mashed roots, water, and spit, and which induces copious hallucinations of animals. But we will not cover exotic wines here.

Wines may be natural, fortified, or sparkling. Natural wines are still, without any carbonation, or bubbles. They are made from crushed grapes harvested at full ripeness. In some cases, as with lateharvest Riesling wines, the grapes are harvested when they are overripe and covered with mold. Natural wines generally have an alcohol content of 7 to 15 percent.

Fortified wines include port, sherry, and Madeira. These are still wines to which brandy and other distilled liquors have been added. Fortified wines are potent. Their alcohol content ranges from 16 percent to 35 percent.

Sparkling wines are wines with bubbles, the finest example of which is champagne. Sparkling wines undergo secondary fermentation when they are bottled, as the live yeasts in them continue to eat the natural sugars in the wine. Their alcohol content ranges from 7 percent to 15 percent. However, because of their carbonation, sparkling wines deliver their alcohol to the bloodstream faster than still wines.

Wine varies in flavor and aroma according to the variety of grape, the region in which it is grown, and the methods by which the wine is produced. It may be dry or sweet; red, white, or rosé in color. The drier the wine, the more the grape sugars have been eaten by enzymes in the fermentation process, reducing the residual sugar in the finished product. Red wines are made by crushing and fermenting the whole grape. Whites are made by fermenting only the juice of the crush. Rosé is made by fermenting the entire crushed grape for a short period of time, then separating out the skins and fermenting only the juice. The temporary fermentation of the skins, which contain various red pigments, leaves a blush-colored wine.

Wine, like beer, can be a chemical stew, made with an awesome array of clarifiers, stabilizers, preservatives, pH control agents, tannins, enzymes, and polyvinyl compounds. So much for the popular toast “to your health.” Sulfur dioxide and potassium metabisulfite, two sulfite preservatives, are considered by many wine makers to be essential ingredients in the winemaking process. This inclusion of sulfites, however, poses a serious risk to sensitive consumers. In genetic experiments using yeasts, viruses, live cells, and bacteria, sulfites proved mutagenic and caused chromosomal abnormalities. There is concern that sulfites in wine may do the same thing inside our bodies. Allergic sensitivity to sulfites is common. Asthmatics in particular are susceptible to sulfites in foods and can suffer attacks of wheezing, tightness in the chest, and difficulty breathing. A serious allergic reaction to sulfites in foods can render a person unconscious. Even if sulfites are not actually added to a wine, they most likely are in it, because sulfites occur naturally in aged wooden wine casks and are imparted to wine during the aging process. The Food and Drug Administration enacted legislation that mandated sulfite labeling on all wines by January 1988 if they contain more than 10 parts per million of sulfites. Almost all wines contain sulfites. A few wineries have managed to extract sulfites from wine after aging, producing 99.9 percent sulfite-free wines. We will most likely see more sulfite-free wines in the future, but the wines may nonetheless be processed with other additives.

Some organic wines are available today. Certainly the wineries producing organic wines are few at present, but we will see an increase in organically produced wines over the next few years as the urgency of removing pesticides from our food chain becomes more widely appreciated. The French organic certification program Nature et Progrés has already certified a few dozen European wines, apparently with more soon on the way. Several California vineyards are also producing organic varietal wines. The organic wine market is beginning to open.

In choosing wines, look for those that are organically produced whenever possible. Full disclosure labeling is not required on wines, and wineries just don’t do it. You can find out about the possible additives in a wine by contacting the winery directly. Choose varietal wines, those named after the specific grapes with which they were made, such as chardonnay, riesling, sauvignon blanc, merlot, and zinfandel. The winery of origin makes a huge difference. Take the advice of some good books on wineries and particular vintages. Wine guides can be very helpful in directing you to good wine experiences. A poorly made varietal can turn you away from that grape, whereas a well-made wine is a true pleasure.

Nonalcoholic Wine

Nonalcoholic wines are subjected to pressure or heat after they are made, thus reducing the alcohol to less than 0.5 percent. They retain the full flavor and aroma of wine without producing intoxication. There are currently several brands of still and sparkling nonalcoholic wines on the market.