Moderate consumption of alcohol, defined by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as
no more than one to two drinks for men and one drink for women
per day, is consistently shown as being beneficial for the
heart and circulatory system (the UK equivalent is 3-4 units
per day for men and 2-3 units for women). Moderate consumers
statistically have fewer heart attacks and strokes, live longer,
have lower blood pressure, and generally report better overall
health.
An obsevation of the early names for distilled alcohol indicates
that modern European terms are derivatives of :
'Aqua vitae' (water of life) for a 90%abv,
'Aqua ardens (burning water)' for a 60%abv,
'Spiritus vini' (wine spirit) for distilled wine.
'Aqua ardens' and 'spiritus vitae' has given us:
Italian - acqua vita
French - eau-de-vie
Gaelic - uisce beatha, uisgebaugh
English - whisky/whiskey ( corruption of the Gaelic term)
Polish - okowita, wodka, wodeczka
Estonian -viin
Finnish - viina
Ukrainian - okovyta, vodka
Danish & Swedish - akvavit
Norwegian - aquavit, akevitt
'Aqua ardens' and 'spiritus vini' or a combination from both,
has given us:
Italian - acqua ardente
French - eau ardens, esprit-de-vin
Spanish - aguardiente
German - gebrannte wasser, weingeist, weinbrand
Dutch - brandewijn, korenwijn (grain wine)
English - brandy (corruption of the Dutch term)
Swedish - brannvin
Danish - braendevin, sprit
Polish - gorzale wino, winiak, spirytus
Ukrainian - harjache vyno, palene vyno, spyrt
Russian - khljebnoje vino (grain wine), spirt
Czech & Slovak - palenka
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