Literatus: Christmastime, mistletoe and wine

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Christmastime

Although festive, Christmastime is best celebrated—unlike most festivities such as Pit Señor (although it is a feast of the Child Jesus) because of the mardigras dancing associated with Sinulog—that is, not so much with lots of dancing, but with more solemn times together with the family, talking about the events of the year; oftentimes with lola and lolo around.

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It is especially during Christmas that we finally have the time to renew our spirits, calm our nerves, and celebrate the blessing we receive the whole year round. It is where health supposed to be at its most pampered time.

Mistletoe

Viscum album is a tree parasitic plant that had medicinal properties only lately better documented.

In 2006, the Serin study, published in Clinical Chemistry journal, confirmed that mistletoe can inhibit intestinal peristalsis (movement of the intestines), making it a valuable treatment against colic. It has been used to treat prostate cancer, according to the Auerbach study in the same year (results published in the Journal of Men’s Health and Gender).

Studies on mice show that it has antihypertensive properties, and its extracts showed some activity against bladder carcinoma, according to the Mengs study, published in Antircancer Research in 2000.

The more elusive challenge however was how to establish it as safe for human consumption, which appeared to be so far hard to do, according to the Ofem study in 2007.

Wine

How would you feel a Christmas dinner with your family served with milk-chocolate flavored liquor? A Shakers Mudslide maybe, with 13.9 percent alcohol per volume, imported from New Zealand. I got hold of it from S&R, and it is great post-Noche Buena. It tastes much like a milk chocolate drink with a subtle taste of alcohol. The good thing is: the sweet taste of milk choco persists longer in your tongue as that of the liquor simply evaporates in a few seconds. You simply failed to notice when you have had enough.

Good for great stories to flow forth as smooth as the Mudslide.

May your Christmas be a very memorable one this year.

Christmastime, mistletoe and wine
Children, singing a Christian rhyme
With lights on the fire
And gifts on the trees
A time to rejoice in the good that we see

Rejoice then in the good that you have been blessed with in 2011, and bring that sense of blessedness to 2012. Cheers!