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Drink Tips

Posted November. 27, 2006 07:05,   

한국어


Park Yong-woo (44), a doctor of family medicine at Gangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul, is an expert on obesity who has cured 15,000 overweight patients in 15 years. Above all, he transformed himself. He once had a height of 170cm, a weight of 74kg, and measured 36 inches around the waist. He now weighs 62-64 kg and measures 30 inches around the waist.

Alcohol often goes hand in hand with obesity, but he enjoys drinking among doctors. He usually drinks five times a week, which means he drinks almost everyday. However, he has still kept his weight for five years. What is his secret?

I wanted to learn from him the secret of drinking without getting fat. He invited me to drink with him and explained how.

Lemon helps metabolism of alcohol, thereby getting rid of a hangover-

We arrived at the bar in Gangnam, Seoul, around 9:10. He said his philosophy of drinking is to drink joyfully.

Sliced lemons on the table caught my attention. Once I sat down, Professor Park made poktanju by mixing beer with whiskey, ice and lemons.

“Lemon juice removes the smell of poktanju and produces more bile, one of digestive juices. In addition, it contains a large amount of vitamin C so that it helps the metabolism of alcohol and eliminates hangovers.”

When I drink bottoms up, he stops me immediately.

“Do not drink bottoms up. You should drink poktanju sip by sip as if you are drinking beer, okay?”

He explained the liver cleans the blood only when the density of alcohol in blood slowly goes up.

But it does not mean that liquor that has low density of alcohol like beer is not always good. The alcohol density of poktanju is 16 to 17 proof, and that of beer is 4 to 5 proof. You should drink beers four times more than poktanju to get drunk equally. However beer contains carbohydrate (30g per one liter) unlike Western liquors, so it is easy to gain weight if you drink beer.

Drink a glass of milk before drinking alcohol. If you have a meal, it would be a “shortcut” to get fat-

I already had spaghetti and pizza for dinner, so I felt I was too full to drink. Professor Park heard this and said, “It is better not to eat carbohydrates. But you cannot drink without having anything in your stomach. In this case, drinking milk is the best. I already filled my stomach with milk and an egg.”

When carbohydrate comes in the body, the liver produces insulin to correct the balance of sugar in the blood. The liver gets busier when it is already busy neutralizing alcohol. Moreover, fat is not dissolved with carbohydrates, but accumulates in the body. This is a shortcut to getting fat. But how can we only fill our stomachs with milk and drink alcohol?

“Eating pork and drinking soju? It is the worst. Alcohol does not dissolve fat but promotes synthesis. Fat builds up in your body as soon as you eat pork. It is necessary to eat vegetables and fruits when you drink. It is not to lower calories but to provide vitamin B and C.”

Once alcohol comes in the body, it consumes vitamin B and C and prevents them from being created. As for fruits, Kiwi which has low calories, strawberry, tomato, and pineapple, which is good for constipation, are good. Professor Park advises that you should take a multiple vitamin pill every day if you enjoy drinking a lot.

You need 10 times more water than alcohol-

“Water is needed in order to make alcohol go out of the body. The amount of water should be 10 times more than that of alcohol you drink.”

A glass of poktanju is around 200cc. The density of it is approximately 16 degrees. This means 16g of alcohol is in 100cc of water, so there is 32g of alcohol in a glass of poktanju. 320cc of water is needed to neutralize this amount of alcohol.

You should drink more than one and half cups of water to counteract a glass of poktanju. The temperature of water does not matter. Professor Park used to drink a sizable amount of water. He always has breakfast in the morning after he drinks. Carbohydrate is also needed to counteract alcohol. He likes rice and stew cooked with bean sprouts. A warm stew provides water, rice supplies carbohydrate, and aspartic acid from bean sprouts helps remove a hangover.



artemes@donga.com