Today I would like to share with the readers of “Rum” a very interesting, albeit slightly shocking, way of drinking strong alcohol, and also, in general terms, to figure out why the Indians get drunk so quickly?
Very little is known about the Indian drinking culture. In addition to tequila, which, in fact, the Europeans came up with, and all sorts of pulque-octli, you won’t remember anything. But the fact that Native Americans drink, and drink a lot, no one doubts.
- So, the most common way to drink in Indian style:
For 10 years, swallow bad whiskey, go down, drink mustang and tomahawk, sell all your pastures to colonists for a skein of glass beads.
- Method number 2, less well-known:
I once read about him in one of King’s books. Allegedly, the Peruvian Indians did this, consuming alcohol in huge doses. In no case do I recommend anyone to use this method. But personally I tried, and not without pleasure.
You will need: a beer glass; whiskey, brandy, vodka or tequila – 0.5 liters; lemon – a few slices; real Indian – 1 pc.
Before you start drinking, take 2 slices of lemon, tilt your head back and squeeze them right into your nose. After that, you can drink a whole mug of any alcohol in one gulp and not even notice its taste.
It is not known whether the Indians really drink like this, or whether the “King of Horrors” once again tried to scare the reader. I used tequila in this way (in my opinion, it is much more effective than boring salt and lime), and also once drank 400 grams of vodka on a bet in one fell swoop without a snack. Invigorates!
What is good for a Russian is death for an Indian!
And now more seriously. I have heard thousands of times that the Indians, like the Chukchi and other northern peoples, get drunk much faster than Europeans or Americans, because they allegedly “do not have an enzyme that digests alcohol.” This, of course, is nonsense – every person on Earth has the same set of enzymes. But here they act differently and at different speeds, so there are still racial features. Let’s try to briefly understand how the use of alcohol by representatives of different nations differs.
“Bad is the Indian who does not dream of becoming dead.”
First, let’s remember how alcohol is broken down in the body.
- Actually drinking, causes pleasant sensations, does not depend on enzymes.
- Decomposition of ethanol. With a slight movement of alcohol dehydrogenase, ethyl alcohol is converted into extremely toxic ethyl aldehyde. Suffering in the morning after a party, you can rightfully blame this substance for all the troubles.
- decomposition of the aldehyde. Here the second enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase, begins to work, taking hydrogen from aldehyde, due to which it decomposes to harmless vinegar.
The faster these magical dehydrants work, the faster you will a) get drunk faster and b) recover from a hangover faster. Alleles of genes are responsible for the speed of enzymes. The most unlucky person with alleles ADH1B*47His (instant intoxication) and ALDH2*2 (long-term decomposition of toxins). Such a poor fellow will suffer a hangover for a very long time, without even really having time to feel the wonderful state of gradual intoxication. It’s a shame, isn’t it? But do not rush to feel sorry for him!
Our comrade – for simplicity we will give him the code name “ADH1B * 47His + ALDH2 * 2” – will never get drunk. ADH1B*47His+ ALDH2*2 – most likely, a Chinese, Japanese or Korean, he almost instantly “goes down” (sorry for the involuntary pun), but he is not threatened with alcohol addiction.
Another extreme is another lover of alcohol, a South American Indian or mestizo ADH1B*47His+ ALDH7. The combination of the two most intense alleles allows him to sober up almost instantly and recover from a hangover. By the way, this hypothesis is also confirmed by the observations of the very character of King, whom I mentioned at the beginning of the article: “Indians [Peruvian] drink alcohol like Coca-Cola, I rarely saw drunk people there, and never anyone – with a hangover».
Slavic peoples, like the Scandinavians, get drunk slowly, Western Europeans even more slowly, and the indigenous people of North America and South Africa bring up the rear of this parade. But people recover from hangovers equally quickly in these regions, since the ALDH2*2 allele is very rare here. In general, it is quite possible to say that the average Mohican, Apache, Yakut or Chukchi is just as prone to alcoholism as the average Belarusian, Latvian or Swede. So where do entire tribes and reservations of red-skinned drunkards come from?
The whole secret is in the snack!
It is believed that it was not genes that killed the Indian tribes, but a change in diet. Prior to colonization, Native American food was predominantly animal, the so-called protein-lipid type of diet, which has evolved over the centuries. Fats and protein in large quantities reduce the level of corticosteroids – stress hormones.
But Europeans came to the Indians, and Russians came to the Yakuts, forced them to put aside their bows and take up hoes. Agriculture did not leave time for hunting, the prairies teeming with bison were empty, they had to switch to cereals and vinaigrette. And then the culture is changing, centuries-old foundations are being trampled, strangers rule the lands of your ancestors, plant religion and values. All this is stress. How to deal with stress? Only “fire water”, which caring pilgrims bring in barrels in exchange for the skins of fur-bearing animals.
South America, where agriculture was developed even before the Europeans, is not so full of alcoholics. And in the North Indians who live in cities, oddly enough, they suffer from drunkenness much more often than those who are resettled on reservations. After all, there you can hunt or breed domestic animals, and in the city not every white can afford meat.
In general, if you are a real Indian, listen to the voice of your ancestors – eat fatty meat!