North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

One size never fits all:

"Notice you hear very little about white
wine, its because of the anthocyanins and higher
phenolic content of the red."

True, but some people get migraines from red wine.

"recent studies linking
acetaldehyde (metabolite in the liver from the
consumption of alcohol) in the body to production of a
carcinogenic substance"

Some people convert alcohol to this form more quickly than others, and some 
have trouble breaking it down from that point.  You can get an idea of how 
well your liver breaks down aldehydes by how much you are bothered by molds 
and perfumes.  I don't get along well with either.  As it happens, alcohol 
has never done anything for me, so I seldom bother to drink the stuff.
   I read that autopsies on a long series of Bowery alcoholics revealed 
that only 10% had cirrhosis.  The writer said that if only 10% of the 
population will develop cirrhosis no matter how much they drink, "let's 
figure out who those people are so the rest of us can have a good time." 
Well, he said, for one thing they don't have hair on their chests.  This was 
first thought to be a symptom, but it turns out these men NEVER had hair on 
their chests.  So as I'm on the hemochromatosis support group, where people 
who have never taken a drink cam turn up with cirrhosis because of iron 
overload, I asked about hairy chests in the group.  Hans in Switzerland 
pointed out that an American, Dr. Pfeiffer, had shown that men with 
histadelia (high histamine) had little body hair while those with histopenia 
(low histamine) tended to be hairy.  Many chemical processes are different 
in these groups.   Who knows, maybe the hairy chested  guys with 
hemochromatosis are somehow protected from liver damage.

Donna