ALCOHOL CAN BE GOOD FOR YOU!

In this uniquely Japanese mix of quirky fun and hard science, alcohol is revealed not as a poison, but as the best of all medicines . . . up to a point. If we drink healthily, drinkers need never give up what we love.

Kaori Haishi is a journalist and the director of the Japan Saké Association; Dr Shinichi Asabe is a liver specialist who likes a drink. Together they interview a line-up of twenty-five booze-loving physicians, including Japan's leading expert on throwing up, a sleep specialist on how nightcaps can cause depression and a professor on how drinking too much beer can prevent the secretion of testosterone.

Universally relevant information about the effects of wines, beers and spirits on the human body is delivered with clarity and precision, backed up by plentiful footnotes citing the latest academic research. The unfailingly amusing Haishi has plainly suffered through many a compulsory works outing and has particularly empathetic advice for women, including the merits of saké as a miracle skin-care product. The book explores all sorts of issues, such as:

• Bitter Medicine -- how beer can help to prevent dementia.
• Shakes on a Plane - is in-flight drinking dangerous?
• Mellow Yellow - checking the colour of your pee.
• Snack Attacks - secrets for avoiding weight gain.
• And that perennial mystery . . . how do the French get away with it?