Helath Benefits of Whiskey And Its Side Effects

Whiskey is a distilled alcoholic beverage made by fermentation of different types of grain mash, such as wheat, barley, maize, rye, buckwheat, etc. The appearance, flavor as well as price depend on the type of grain used, the fermentation process, and its post production, which includes the location of storage, container stored in, and the amount of time it is stored. Thus, there are many different variants of whiskey worldwide.

Whiskey is an alcoholic beverage, and the typical whiskey contains approximately 46% of alcohol, which accounts for most of its calorie content. Whiskey contains very low carbohydrates, and trace amounts of cholesterol, saturated fats, sodium, potassium, phosphorus and fluoride only.

Whiskey is primarily used for consumption as an alcoholic beverage. Unlike certain other varieties of alcohol, it is not widely used for culinary purposes. Whiskey may be used in place of rubbing alcohol to disinfect wounds in cases of extreme emergency and absence of other disinfectants.

Whiskey is an alcoholic drink, hence, in spite of its health benefits, it has far more damaging side effects if not taken in moderation. Some of these include:

Alcohol poisoning, causing elevated heart rates, nausea, and vomiting. Impaired judgment, loss of balance, altered response patterns to situations, which causes people to make rash or negligent decisions even in life or death situations.

Liver cirrhosis caused due to excessive drinking, which throws the normal body metabolism completely awry, resulting in fat deposition, hardening of liver and complete disruption of its normal activities.

Excessive alcohol intake causes addiction, which causes a person to consume more and more, setting off a chain reaction of the other damaging effects on the body. The body metabolism is completely destroyed due to excess drinking, resulting in increased chances of stroke.

The process of distillation is considered to have been practiced by ancient Babylonians in Mesopotamia, the earliest chemical evidence of which has however been obtained only for the Greeks in ancient Alexandria, following which, it was found to have been practiced by the Arabs. These were not distillations of alcohol, however, the earliest evidence of which is found in Italy, when the Latins learned the art from the Arabs. These distilled alcohols were then used for medicinal purposes only. The art of alcohol distillation spread to Ireland and Scotland in the early 15th century, and it was here that the earliest record of alcohol for consumption is noted, and here originates whiskey. Today it is produced by many companies in many breweries in various different methods all over the world.