Teen Drinking and Substance Abuse Up

Good blog entry by Michele Borba referencing the Partnership for Drug Free America study. Michele lists the highlights in her advice for parents of teens: Michele Borba Blog Entry 03/21/10.

I thought it was very interesting to see that the percentage of teens using alcohol and the teens using marijuana are so close:

"Alcohol, ecstasy, and marijuana use are increasing:


Number of teens in grades 9-12 that used alcohol in the past month has grown by 11 percent, (from 35 percent in 2008 to 39 percent in 2009)

Ecstasy use over the past year shows a 67 percent increase (from 6 percent in 2008 to 10 percent in 2009)

Marijuana use shows a 19 percent increase (from 32 percent in 2008 to 38 percent in 2009)  "
 
I have to admit that I would have thought the percentage of teens drinking alcohol to be larger. This study woudl lead me to believe that 61% of the teens surveyed did not use alcohol in the past month. I hope that is accurate.
 

Get an iced tea to save a lot of money when you go out.

For those of us who enjoy a good steak, there are a number of high end restaurants where we can get a prefect filet. The problem is that these high end places tend to be a bit pricey if you are on a tight budget. While they are relatively expensive compared to a fast food joint, it never really made sense to me that some people really went on and on about the price. I finally figured out the real pain point a few years ago. High end establishments really jack up the prices of mixed drinks and tend to maintain an extensive wine inventory with some really high end options. None of this had ever occurred to me since alcohol was not on my agenda anyway. What I noticed is that some people will quickly double, triple or otherwise increase the bill tenfold by adding a few drinks or bottles of wine to the mix. If you just get the iced tea then refills are free and you bill is usually reasonable given the location.


Along those same lines, if you go out for a “night on the town” and avoid the crazy prices of alcohol, you can really save a lot of money. A soft drink tends to be much less expensive in a bar/night club than any alcoholic beverage. As a matter of fact, a lot of places tend to just give away soft drinks for free since they want to encourage designated drivers.

So if you are in a situation where you need to save money you should avoid the alcoholic beverages. You can still have a great time with friends and atmosphere without throwing away more money than you should.

Is Red Wine better for your heart than Grapes?

You hear a lot in the media about how a few studies have shown a possible link between 1 glass of red wine a day and a healthy heart. Of course, none of the studies have been conclusive. According to the Mayo Clinic web site (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/red-wine/HB00089), Resveratrol MIGHT be a key ingredient in red wine that helps prevent damage to blood vessels, reduces "bad" cholesterol and prevents blood clots. Most of the research that backs that up has been conducted on mice, which is how most such research is conducted. Here is the interesting thing to me. The key ingredient in red wine that most researchers think produces the benefit can also be found in grapes and grape juice. There is nothing that indicates that the form of Resveratrol in red wine is more beneficial than what is in grapes. Of course, I have never heard that part in the media because the only newsworthy part is that wine is good for you. I suspect that the alcohol content probably does as much damage as the antioxidants do good. So why not just eat grapes or drink grape juice since that is where the active ingredient that produces the benefit begins. Nobody seems to be studying that very closely because they are too busy trying to show some benefit to alcohol.

Why bother with the alcohol? Grapes taste much better and do much less damage to your other systems if you eat a lot of them. By the way, to get as much benefit from the wine as the mouse does, a human would have to drink 100 to 1,000 bottles of wine in a day according to the Mayo Clinic article.