Drinking alcohol with your durian could kill you, Or is it just a pungent tale?
Kings of old have been known to make heads roll, but this king – of fruits – can make your insides churn. And that is not because some find the pungent durian hard to stomach. Feast on the fruit, wash it down with alcohol, and you could well end up dead, so goes the old wives’ tale that has been circulating in the tropics for years.
Marrying durian and drink is said to cause indigestion, flatulence, stomach discomfort and even death in some cases. Rubbish, you say? Not if you hear service engineer Mike Thiah tell it. The 35-year old once drank vodka at a barbecue after having durians at home. “I threw up the whole night and my lungs felt as if they were being squeezed,” he said. The ordeal left him with a sore throat and a cough for a week.
Some say the problem lies in the compounds found in the two, which can cause havoc when mixed. Others believe that since both are considered “heaty’, the body is unable to cope with the surge of heatiness. The Chinese believe that food falls under two groups: heaty or cooling.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) expert Zhu Wen Jun said there is no scientific or chemical criteria when classifying food, “It depends on the effect the food has on balancing the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ forces within the body. Any imbalance of the two forces will result in illness or pain,” said the dean of TCM College at Pearl’s Centre.
The College was set up jointly by the Singapore TCM Organisations Committee and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in July 2002. Durian, he added, is high in vitamins and protein, and is a “heaty’ food which boosts the body’s ‘yang’ energy. Alcohol is also heaty, so the two could clash and cause discomfort. “But I don’t think it will lead to death,” he said.
And not all alcoholic drinks make bad company, it seems. Durian seller Goh Kwee Leng, 54, said “the combination seems to cause discomfort only when the alcohol content of the drink is higher”. He has seen some people down beer with durians to no ill effect. He owns 717 Trading, a major durian importer and wholesaler here. He reckoned that mixing the fruit with hard liquor, such as whisky and brandy, produces gas, which can cause discomfort.
A check with vice-professor Zhu seems to support his stand. The physician said beer is considered a ‘cooling’ food while hard liquor is ‘heaty’ and so clashes with the equally heaty durian.
We ran this story by the Health Promotion Board, which said there is little scientific evidence to support the belief that durian and alcohol make a lethal combination. Most reports are anecdotal, said Dr Annie Ling, who heads the board’s Nutrition Department. “There have been a very limited number of studies done to verify the effects of mixing the two, and these have yielded findings that are contrary to common belief,” she said.
Doctors referred us to an article in the December 1969 edition of the Singapore Medical Journal, which described an attempt to investigate the potential dire effects of durian and alcohol in mice. The study concluded that there were no dangerous effects on the mice that had been given both durian and alcohol.
A check with MOH to verify reported deaths or complications arising from washing durians down with alcohol was also unfruitful. This is because deaths here are recorded based on what killed the victim, such as heart stoppage or loss of blood, and not the action that caused death.
But Dr Dede Selamat Sutedja, senior consultant at the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at NUH, had a rational explanation for how the urban legend might have come about. Durian, he said, contains about 30% carbohydrates, of which half are simple sugars and the other half, complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates may not be easily digested in some people and may cause abdominal discomfort.
The addition of alcohol, which has a direct inflammatory effect on the stomach wall lining in some people, may worsen the abdominal discomfort caused by durians. There is however, not enough evidence to draw any definite conclusion.
Mr Tan Siew Mong, A TCM physician with more than 20 years’ experience, also advised against mixing the two. Durian is heaty and alcohol raises the blood pressure, so mixing the two is not advised, However, the extent of discomfort will depend on the amount consumed and the individual’s body resistance, he said.
Leaving aside life and death concerns, the marriage of durians and alcohol does not have the blessings of nutritionists either. Dr Ling pointed out that four seeds of medium-sized durians and a can of beer provide about 420 kilocalories, or more than 20% of an average person’s recommended daily energy allowance. This will lead to bloated stomachs and higher body fats.
So, like Romeo and Juliet, it seems the match is doomed, however you look at it.
Kings of old have been known to make heads roll, but this king – of fruits – can make your insides churn. And that is not because some find the pungent durian hard to stomach. Feast on the fruit, wash it down with alcohol, and you could well end up dead, so goes the old wives’ tale that has been circulating in the tropics for years.
Marrying durian and drink is said to cause indigestion, flatulence, stomach discomfort and even death in some cases. Rubbish, you say? Not if you hear service engineer Mike Thiah tell it. The 35-year old once drank vodka at a barbecue after having durians at home. “I threw up the whole night and my lungs felt as if they were being squeezed,” he said. The ordeal left him with a sore throat and a cough for a week.
Some say the problem lies in the compounds found in the two, which can cause havoc when mixed. Others believe that since both are considered “heaty’, the body is unable to cope with the surge of heatiness. The Chinese believe that food falls under two groups: heaty or cooling.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) expert Zhu Wen Jun said there is no scientific or chemical criteria when classifying food, “It depends on the effect the food has on balancing the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ forces within the body. Any imbalance of the two forces will result in illness or pain,” said the dean of TCM College at Pearl’s Centre.The College was set up jointly by the Singapore TCM Organisations Committee and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in July 2002. Durian, he added, is high in vitamins and protein, and is a “heaty’ food which boosts the body’s ‘yang’ energy. Alcohol is also heaty, so the two could clash and cause discomfort. “But I don’t think it will lead to death,” he said.
And not all alcoholic drinks make bad company, it seems. Durian seller Goh Kwee Leng, 54, said “the combination seems to cause discomfort only when the alcohol content of the drink is higher”. He has seen some people down beer with durians to no ill effect. He owns 717 Trading, a major durian importer and wholesaler here. He reckoned that mixing the fruit with hard liquor, such as whisky and brandy, produces gas, which can cause discomfort.
A check with vice-professor Zhu seems to support his stand. The physician said beer is considered a ‘cooling’ food while hard liquor is ‘heaty’ and so clashes with the equally heaty durian.
We ran this story by the Health Promotion Board, which said there is little scientific evidence to support the belief that durian and alcohol make a lethal combination. Most reports are anecdotal, said Dr Annie Ling, who heads the board’s Nutrition Department. “There have been a very limited number of studies done to verify the effects of mixing the two, and these have yielded findings that are contrary to common belief,” she said.
Doctors referred us to an article in the December 1969 edition of the Singapore Medical Journal, which described an attempt to investigate the potential dire effects of durian and alcohol in mice. The study concluded that there were no dangerous effects on the mice that had been given both durian and alcohol.A check with MOH to verify reported deaths or complications arising from washing durians down with alcohol was also unfruitful. This is because deaths here are recorded based on what killed the victim, such as heart stoppage or loss of blood, and not the action that caused death.
But Dr Dede Selamat Sutedja, senior consultant at the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at NUH, had a rational explanation for how the urban legend might have come about. Durian, he said, contains about 30% carbohydrates, of which half are simple sugars and the other half, complex carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates may not be easily digested in some people and may cause abdominal discomfort.
The addition of alcohol, which has a direct inflammatory effect on the stomach wall lining in some people, may worsen the abdominal discomfort caused by durians. There is however, not enough evidence to draw any definite conclusion.
Mr Tan Siew Mong, A TCM physician with more than 20 years’ experience, also advised against mixing the two. Durian is heaty and alcohol raises the blood pressure, so mixing the two is not advised, However, the extent of discomfort will depend on the amount consumed and the individual’s body resistance, he said.
Leaving aside life and death concerns, the marriage of durians and alcohol does not have the blessings of nutritionists either. Dr Ling pointed out that four seeds of medium-sized durians and a can of beer provide about 420 kilocalories, or more than 20% of an average person’s recommended daily energy allowance. This will lead to bloated stomachs and higher body fats.
So, like Romeo and Juliet, it seems the match is doomed, however you look at it.
23 june
ReplyDeleteGilbert, john
nabili ko na s/glass ninyo, regards to all any good news....
jeri 36.9
kuya jerry
ReplyDeletemuzta na kayo jan? kelan uwi ninyo? salamat kuya ha..ganun pa rin kuya..struggling pa rin..hehehe anyway, ingat po kayo tsaka kita nlang tayo pgbalik ninyo..
gilbert