Eight Things to Avoid When Drinking Beer in Summer
As the hot summer approaches, beer once again becomes an essential drink to relieve summer heat and quench thirst. Beer can indeed be suitable for summer consumption as it stimulates the appetite, strengthens the spleen, and relieves summer heat. However, the dangers of excessive beer drinking should not be underestimated. Paying attention to the relevant taboos when consuming it is beneficial to both body and mind. So, here are eight things to avoid when drinking beer in summer.
Avoid eating pickled and smoked foods at the same time. Pickled and smoked products contain organic colloids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzopyrene and amino acid derivatives, which can be produced during improper processing. When drinking beer excessively, the lead content in the blood increases. At this time, these substances combine with the lead, which can induce digestive diseases.
Avoid drinking strong liquor together. Some people are accustomed to drinking beer and then immediately drinking strong liquor. This can irritate the gastrointestinal tract and easily cause digestive disorders.
Avoid excessive consumption. Drinking too much beer at one time will increase the lead content in the blood. Long-term consumption will lead to fat accumulation, block ribonucleic acid synthesis, cause "beer heart," affect heart function, and inhibit and damage brain cells.
People with digestive system diseases should not drink. For patients with chronic gastritis, gastric, and duodenal ulcers, excessive consumption can easily increase the pressure on the gastrointestinal tract due to carbon dioxide, easily triggering a perforation of the gastric and duodenal bulb, which can be life-threatening.
Avoid using beer to take medicine. Mixing beer with medicine can produce adverse side effects. It can increase acidity, causing the medicine to dissolve rapidly in the stomach, and can also destroy blood absorption, reducing the medicine's effectiveness, and even endangering life.
Avoid drinking beer that has been stored for too long. The general shelf life of commercially available regular beer is two months, high-quality beer can be stored for four months, and draft beer for 3 to 7 days. In beer that has been stored for too long, polyphenols can easily oxidize and polymerize with proteins, causing cloudiness.
Avoid drinking frozen beer. The storage temperature for beer is 9-10°C in winter and spring, and 5-10°C in summer. When beer is frozen, proteins and tannins will precipitate, which can easily cause gastrointestinal discomfort and loss of appetite.
Avoid drinking beer stored in a thermos. Because the inner lining of a thermos accumulates scale, when beer is stored in it, various metal components in the scale, such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic, lead, and iron, can be dissolved by the acidic components in the beer and mix with it. Drinking it can lead to heavy metal poisoning in the human body.