8/12/2019 Alarmism vs. Real Worries About Beer

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  Alarmism vs. Real Worries about Beer

I am not a particular fan of beer.

My family certainly did not have it in the house.

(Control freak that I am, I even had trouble with Passover wine. I never — and I mean never — 

managed to imagine how anybody made it through the allegedly requisite four glasses.)

I really don’t remember tasting beer until I was working Mme.Mareschal’s Cafe ―Les Arcades‖ in

Amiens, France, — a quaint village where I attended medical school — where beer was a staple. In

fact, it was pretty much a staple everywhere in Northern France.

Even though the Patronne chose the lightest and most delicate of the Belgian beers, it seemed

heavy to me. I remember a vague sense of nausea, as well as the vague decision that I did not

particularly need this beverage.

It was not until my post-graduate year of general surgical training in Cincinnati, Ohio when I was

informed that it was the official drink of that city because of its Germanic heritage, that I decided

to give beer another try. (They told me it was something all real surgeons were supposed to

drink. Then again, they had told me the same thing about whiskey in Scotland.)

Although some say that consumption is down these days, I know there are still those who cherish

beer and live by that.

I still smile to remember that stalwart citizen of Northern California, one of my very first

psychiatric patients in the Golden state, who informed me that ―hops‖ was an herb and that he

required a considerable amount of daily beer to get his requirement.

Oy!

Not so. Interesting idea, but I told him we could not do psychotropic medications with that one.

An interesting story showed up in a current compendium of headlines and I felt compelled to

check it out.

The major trouble with the internet is the same as the major advantage of the internet — It is

totally open to everybody.

It is important to check information out for yourself.

―Fish guts in beer?‖ This one is a calculated attempt to gross out beer drinkers who read the

internet.

The gelatin-like substance in fish air bladders is actually used in the course of processing some

beers to help solids and molds ―settle out‖ from the beer. This means that it is not supposed to

actually show up in the final product, although there might be traces.

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