Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Land of the Rising Hangover

There has been some discussion recently among the newly arrived JETs and myself as to why the it's so damn easy to get a hangover in Japan. I myself encountered this phenomenon back in the University days, when I could drink my own weight in vodka and be fine the next morning but if I had even a few (read: 4-5) store bought beers I would feel like a Optimus Prime had parked on my face. At any rate, I decided to solve this mystery once and for all, and now present my findings.

The common rumor is that it is because Japanese beers contain far more starch than the average US brews. It is true that Japanese "beers" contain more starch, among other things. The reason for the "" marks is that one must be careful when using the word "beer" in Japan. In 1994, as a result to a beer tax that was based solely on percentage of malt in a beer, companies began to lower their malt percentage to below 67%, with the remaining 33% including rice, corn, sorghum, potato, starch, and sugar. The result was the now super-popular Happoshu. The Government, realizing that they were missing out on a tons of tax income, quickly levied higher taxes on beverages containing between 50-25% malt. The alcohol giants fired back with even less "beery" beers, even replacing malts altogether with artificially non-malts, that are known as "beer-flavored beverages" or "third generation beer." Leave it to the Japanese, masters of the ancient art of tax evasion, to sabotage the last great real on this sad planet, a good beer, to save a buck or two. Bloody heathens.

Well, it turns out that it's not the starch that's the problem; its all the other crap they've thrown in there. Just as mixing alcohols is likely to increase the urge to punch everything that makes noise the next morning, giving your body tons of extra chemicals to process and elimate is a sure-fire recipe for the hangover to end all hangovers. Taken on it's own, the starch can actually help soften the alcohol's impact. But of course, the Japanese never eat anything starchy when they drink, just edamame and raw fish. Oh and horse heart, they LOVE that. The also force you to chase your beers with an equal amount of shochu (a form of rice or barley whiskey). Come to think of it, that's probably the real problem...

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