Hey what's up with all the wimmenz around here and the virtual drinking parties???
Everybody is going on about Shiraz & Chardonay and I just can't join you cuz you just ain't seen scary till you've partied with an Indian-Irish girl!!!
Just finished my fondue: dark chocolate with cream and cherry brandy. Bananas and strawberries to dip. Really good red wine (the left over Condesa de Leganza). Want some?
BTW, you have not partied until you've tried to drink a Russian under the table. Nine bottles for three people and still standing!
Last edited by optimist; 10/04/0301:35 AM.
"You don't throw a whole life away just 'cause it's banged up a little"
Tom Smith in "Seabiscuit"
Sound yummy, but gotta pass. Even if I were one of the rare ones that could be a problem free-drinker (I think we Natives have a 70-80% alcoholism rate), and I wasn't personally vunerable by coming from 5 (that I know of) generations of alcoholism....I'd be cancelling out the effects of the anti-d's.
I think Indians are so addictive that, if it were possible we'd be drinking whiskey, popping a "painer", having sex, smoking a ciggarette and eating chocolate all at the same time!
I'm a real coffee freak though, gotta have good beans ground fresh. Does it come as any surprise that NW Washington has, by far, they highest consumption of coffee and Prozac in the Nation? Double tall lattes for me!
I wonder if someone has made a study of alcohol metabolism in Native american tribes. Indians from south of the USA border do not seem to have that problem.
Anyway, you can have the children fondue I make for my daughter: substitute the cherry brandy for orange juice and it tastes great (it is 2 tablespoons of each anyway in a 4 person fondue)
"You don't throw a whole life away just 'cause it's banged up a little"
Tom Smith in "Seabiscuit"
I can't remember the name of the enzyme produced to break down alcohol in the body, but whatever it is, we produce far less of it.
The last two weeks, I've been working with a team to put together a Drug Court. Listening to our substance abuse counselors, it sounds like cutting edge science is also indicating alot of difference in neurotransmitters in groups of people whose ancestors were hunter/gatherers in the not so distant past--something about the way we need much more protien to produce adequate levels of serotonin, dopamine, etc. Lower levels lead to depression and the need to self-medicate in order to feel "normal".
Diet seems to be a big factor. We don't do well on the standard American diet. Way more Natives are obese, have diabetes, gall bladder problems, etc. I know a lot of natives that are doing the Adkins Diet, and the increased protien makes them feel great and loose weight, but unless the stick to our traditional foods (mostly wild game and fish) the cholesterol levels go way high.
All of this (and other factors like poor health care) adds up to us having by far the lowest life expectancy of any group in America.
Probably much more information than you wanted to know, but next time you hear someone gripe about our treaty rights for taking fish and game...tell them it's a small price for all the land and to keep the original peoples from becoming extinct.
OK, Talitsa is hoping down off the soap box!
I'll have the children's fondue if you don't make me sit at the kiddie table, ok?
It is called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH for short), and the data is unconclusive. There are studies in favor and against the theory. You take your pick. Personally I think the jury is still out.
We do not have a kiddie table: in this family everybody eats at the same table. Table manners come from practice
"You don't throw a whole life away just 'cause it's banged up a little"
Tom Smith in "Seabiscuit"
The second article sounds like it was written from an activist point of view. Not to say that I don't have some leanings in that direction, but I've heard the rhetoric many times from educated urban Indians that didn't grow up on the rez. Primarily, they believe the "alcoholic myth" is a stereotype perpetuated by the evil dominant society in order to have us kept down by "the man" lol!
Even if there is a higher rate, they theorize that it's only a byproduct of the despair of poverty and oppression by (you guessed it)the Man. Admitting to a predisposition is equal to being "genetically inferior" in some way. Personally I think they are speaking from ignorance an shame about being Indian.
I'm not saying that we don't have tremendous challenges living in today's America, but I don't think enabling alcholics and addicts by giving yet anouther excuse not to take personal responsibility is doing anyone any favors.
When I run into one of these kind of folks, I usually invite them to quit spouting the rhetoric and fighting battles against Indian mascits long enough to join me in the trenches on the rez for a year.
They'd be put to better use helping our youth and chopping some wood for the elders.
Yikes, there I go on the soapbox again.
I'm just trying to distract myself from the housework & laundry that's calling my name.
We're well versed in the epidemic of addictions among Native peoples here in Canada. Native Canadians make up a far larger proportion of our population than you do in the USA, I believe.
That makes for a more powerful influence in research, funding, land rights, suing former abusers etc. up here.
Sure the deplorable conditions on many reservations, the discrimination, the hoplessness all feed the cycle...but the fact that Native Peoples have not had THOUSANDS Of years of exposure to alcohol must factor in as well.
How did we get on this? Oh, right, Tal's soap box...that's okay, Tal...since when is information and education wrong?
