Well, at least for someone, alcohol turned out to be useful.
The writer Sergei Dovlatov lamented: “Thousands of books have been written about the dangers of alcohol. About its benefits - not a single one! But then the first scientific study appeared, in which scientists at the University of Tokyo (Japan) argued for the benefits of the green snake. True, for pigs. Not for those who are told “Where did you get sucked again, piglet?”, But for the real ones - with hooves and tails-hooks.
A group of scientists led by Yasuhisa Ano, a professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Biological Sciences at Tokyo University, was solving a purely practical problem that Japanese liquor producers set before them to the network (translated as “burnt wine” - author). This drink, traditional for the Land of the Rising Sun, is stronger than sake. The net intake is 25 degrees, while in sake the percentage of alcohol does not exceed 15 percent. The net is obtained after repeated distillation of the mash, which is infused with barley, potatoes, rice, wheat and other products. Naturally, yeast is added to the mash … however, why am I telling all this to the Russian reader, who knows the recipe for making moonshine better than Our Father?
In general, liqueur producers were interested in how to reduce the costs of preparing a drink. In particular, is it possible to more efficiently use the barley wash remaining after distillation? Before that, they were forced to dispose of it as industrial waste, which was quite expensive. The center of the chain's liqueur production is Kyushu, the third largest island in the Japanese archipelago. It is also known as a livestock region and is home to a large number of pig farms.
“We decided to look for a solution that would suit both one and the other, that is, producers of alcohol and livestock breeders,” explained Professor Ano. - And we thought, what if we feed the distillation residues to farm animals?
From time to time, village moonshiners from the Russian hinterland conduct such experiments in their backyards, throwing away wine pulp or distillation residues and observing the change in the behavior of intoxicated chickens. But in Japan, the experiment was conducted exclusively on a scientific basis. The researchers selected six pigs and began to feed them, adding fermented barley mash left after the liquor distillation to the standard diet.
The result of the experiment exceeded all expectations. After several months of fattening, analyzes showed that the saliva of the havroniums from the experimental group turned out to have a higher content of IgA antibodies than in relatives who were added to the standard diet with regular barley. This means that these animals have a better immune system. In addition, the experimental piglets showed lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. This clearly indicated that the pigs, as the classic said, became better life, life became more fun. They now, probably, and the sea seemed knee-deep!
The pigs that ate fermented barley had better immune systems and were healthier.
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By the way, tests on mice have confirmed that a drunken diet makes animals more resistant to stress. In rodents fed on the remains of the distillate, the level of dopamine, the hormone of pleasure, in the brain recovered much faster after a stressful event.
But most importantly, pigs that had been drinking hoppy barley produced much tastier meat than their teetotal counterparts in the control group. Panelists who conducted blind taste tests noted that the tenderloin and tenderloins were more tender, juicier, more flavorful and more protein-rich than the meat of the standard diet pigs.
“We did not notice any difference in weight gain between pigs fed on two different diets,” notes one of the study co-authors Junyu Li. “Therefore, the difference in taste could not be caused by the amount of fat. The higher quality taste is likely due to chemical differences in the composition of the meat. The fat melts at lower temperatures, which makes the meat melt in your mouth.
Apparently, the Japanese sows had marinated meat during their lifetime …
