Italian Youths...Drink Wine...Family Meals Less Likely to Develop Harmful Adult Drinking Patterns...

Boston University School of Public Health ^ | August 18, 2010 | Unknown

[allmendream]

Asian?

[a fool in paradise]

If only Joe Kennedy had permitted young Edward to drink at dinner, this could have been avoided.

[Thrownatbirth]

My Irish grandma used to put beer in my plastic Evenflo baby bottle - and I always demanded another. So I had bad drinking patterns before I was even old enough to sit at the table.

[boxerblues]

Homemade dago red is definitely an acquired taste....first time I drank commercial wine it was such a shock I thought was it nasty. I still prefer a glass of good red wine over anything else

[Polynikes]

“We tried it once but everybody turned red and they were walking around the dining room bent over throwing up and wretching.

It was just horrible.

I suspect we are not Italian but I don't know for sure. Anyone have an idea?”

Sounds like little or no enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase being produced. It converts acetaldehyde to acetate.

It results from genetic condition among some ethnic groups such as Asian or Native Americans.
http://www.indiana.edu/~rcapub/v17n3/p18.html

[muawiyah]

Now you’re getting it. The Italian drink at home technique just doesn’t work for everybody.

[rednesss]

I hope this story doesn’t get out, the MADD nazi’s will descend in force, blitzkrieg style.

[stanz]

I agree. Just read something yesterday that a large percentage of American teens are going deaf due to IPODs and blasting their music through ear buds(and in clubs).
Food, wine, talk and SOFT background music.

[neverdem]

We tried it once but everybody turned red and they were walking around the dining room bent over throwing up and wretching.

It was just horrible.

I suspect we are not Italian but I don't know for sure. Anyone have an idea?

Turning red is called flushing. That with vomiting and nausea sounds like an "antabuse reaction," when some folks drink ethanol even though they have not taken any antabuse.

The first metabolite of ethanol is acetaldehyde which is toxic above a certain concentration. The enzyme needed to metabolize acetaldehyde is called aldehyde dehydrogenase. Some folks inherit slow versions of aldehyde dehydrogenase. It's more common in folks whose ancestors come from the Far East. These slow versions of aldehyde dehydrogenase allow acetaldehyde build up to toxic levels more quickly.

There are more links here about it, if you're interested.

Familial drinking in Italy: Harmful or protective factors?

[decimon]

The last sentence from your second link says that studying other countries with similar practice would be helpful. Sounds right.

Something not mentioned in that abstract is the type of booze drunk by the adult regular and heavy drinkers. If they switched to hard liquor in adulthood then that is another factor to consider.