Bartender Turns Wine Into Clean Water
CNN
BLOWING ROCK, North Carolina (Nov. 30) -- Behind the bar at a local restaurant, Doc Hendley leans in to hear his customer over the band. "You like the pinot? Cool," he says.
It's a seemingly average interaction, but Hendley is not your average bartender. As he pours wine in the United States, he's also helping to save thousands of lives on the other side of the world -- and he's tapped into his regulars to help.
"[They] sit on the same stool, drink the same drink, pay the same tab every day. I felt like they really did want to be a part of something," Hendley says. "They just were waiting for somebody to bring that something to them."
That something is Wine to Water, Hendley's organization that provides clean water to people in developing countries through funds raised at wine tasting events.
Since 2004, Hendley has traveled to Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia, working with local communities to build clean water wells and sanitation systems.
The 30-year-old first learned about the world's water crisis when he took a break from college, and his job as a bar-keep, to travel the world; he hoped it would ground his education and provide some direction. It did.
"I began seeing the figures [of] people that don't have access to clean water -- and it absolutely floored me," he recalls.
At least one in six people worldwide lack access to adequate amounts of safe water for drinking and hygiene, according to the United Nations. This contributes to diarrhea, the leading cause of illness and death, and translates to 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.
After returning to school, Hendley realized that just by using his ability to bartend and create relationships with people, he might be able to help the problem. At the bars where he worked, he solicited evenings to host wine tastings and provide information about the global crisis. By graduation, Hendley's "Wine to Water" events had yielded enough funding to implement water projects in the developing world.
He approached a local contact, Kenny Isaacs of Samaritan's Purse, with the intention of handing over the funds for their international charitable water projects. Instead, Hendley found himself in Sudan in spring 2004, training to oversee water projects and developing and installing water systems in zones deemed too dangerous for United Nations aide workers -- all in the midst of civil war.
"[I was] seeing these people living in conflicts, bullets whizzing by their ears -- yet their biggest concern was the huge loss of life because of the unclean water," he recalls. "That's when water changed from being my passion to the burden of my life."
After a year of service in Darfur, Hendley returned to the states and continued his fund-raising events while focusing on ways his group could improve upon other water project models.
"Throughout the desert there were bore holes [for wells] all over the place, they just weren't working," says Hendley. "Organizations would put a brand new, $15,000 bore hole in a village that already had one; [they] didn't stop to think that maybe that one is broken or just needs some parts."
Wine to Water is dedicated to achieving sustainability through education and empowerment of local community members, training them to install, maintain and repair their own water systems.
Hendley has found this approach reduces overhead costs, leaving more for investment in water initiatives and local economies. Because his operation is small, Hendley says he's less deterred by the instability of areas in dire need and is able to access pockets of the world that larger organizations may have to avoid.
To date, Hendley's group has worked in five developing countries, including India, bringing safe drinking water to more than 25,000 individuals in refugee camps, orphanages, schools, hospitals and a leper colony, as well as directly into hundreds of homes through the installation of bio-sand filters.
In the face of the overwhelming global crisis, Hendley says his work may be a drop in the bucket, but to him it's nothing short of a miracle.
"You can be a bartender in Raleigh, North Carolina; you can be just a regular anybody. And you really, really can change the world," he says. "You can touch thousands of lives. I'm walking truth of that."
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Red Wine?!
Red Wine Helps Kick-Start Good Digestion
Portuguese study finds the beverage triggers chemical reactions inside the stomach
Jacob Gaffney
Posted: October 14, 2009
Red wine not only goes well with a nice meal, it helps the stomach convert potentially harmful chemicals into less dangerous molecules before they're circulated in the body, according to a new study slated to be published in an upcoming journal of Toxicology. A team of Portuguese researchers found that specific polyphenols in red wine trigger the release of nitric oxide, a chemical that relaxes the stomach wall, helping to optimize digestion.
According to co-author Dr. João Laranjinha, an associate professor at the Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, the research bucks current theory. Since the 1990s, many researchers have believed that many of wine's observed health benefits are due to the antioxidative properties of polyphenols. Studies have found wine appears to counteract deleterious, oxidative injury to the body's molecules and cells, as with chronic, inflammatory conditions such as atherosclerosis, a condition in which fatty material collects along the walls of arteries.
Many of these studies suggest that people would need to consume impossibly large amounts of red wine in order to see any antioxidative benefit, because polyphenols are extensively metabolized during absorption in the intestines, said Laranjinha. Estimates range anywhere from a couple of bottles per day, to 10,000 per week.
But an earlier study by the same team and published in Free Radical Biology & Medicine in 2008 found that red wine's benefits may begin before it reaches the intestine. "We started to check for beneficial effects occurring before the absorption phase, that is in the stomach," said Laranjinha. "Overall, the observations of the current study suggest a new pathway for the health benefits of wine ethanol and polyphenols in humans, beyond antioxidant activity, via production of nitric oxide."
While in large doses nitric oxide is a pollutant, in smaller amounts it can dilate arteries, helping blood flow. It also has the ability to "relax" the walls of the stomach, allowing nutrients to pass more freely into the bloodstream. In the earlier study, Laranjinha and his team noted that red wine showed a higher level of another chemical, called ethyl nitrite, when compared to non-alcoholic beverages and brandy. Ethyl nitrite, they found, reacts with potentially harmful free radicals, called nitrites, by chemically converting the molecules into nitric oxide. (Nitrites are found in salty and processed meats and can react poorly in the body, forming carcinogens.)
For the current research, the Portuguese researchers used samples of various red-wine polyphenols, such as catechin, epicatechin and quercetin, which are also found abundantly in apples, berries and onions.
To test if these polyphenols reduce the levels of nitrites in the stomach, the scientists examined the combined effect on preserved rodent gastric strips and on a sample of synthetic stomach acid. After 60 minutes of being exposed to the polyphenols, the stomach strips relaxed and the acid showed high levels of ethyl nitrite.
Taking it one step further, they recruited six healthy volunteers to eat a serving of lettuce, which is known to produce nitrites in the stomach, then served them red wine. After 60 minutes the participants would regurgitate into airtight containers so the contents could be examined. The scientists also found high levels of nitric oxide in the stomach acid.
"Both major [components] of red wine, the polyphenols and the ethanol, may induce beneficial effects via production of nitric oxide," said Laranjinha. "Mechanistically, the polyphenols reduce the nitrites consumed in the diet into nitric oxide in the stomach, and the ethanol reacts with nitrite and derived species in the stomach yielding a new molecule, ethyl nitrite, that releases the nitric oxide."
Portuguese study finds the beverage triggers chemical reactions inside the stomach
Jacob Gaffney
Posted: October 14, 2009
Red wine not only goes well with a nice meal, it helps the stomach convert potentially harmful chemicals into less dangerous molecules before they're circulated in the body, according to a new study slated to be published in an upcoming journal of Toxicology. A team of Portuguese researchers found that specific polyphenols in red wine trigger the release of nitric oxide, a chemical that relaxes the stomach wall, helping to optimize digestion.
According to co-author Dr. João Laranjinha, an associate professor at the Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, the research bucks current theory. Since the 1990s, many researchers have believed that many of wine's observed health benefits are due to the antioxidative properties of polyphenols. Studies have found wine appears to counteract deleterious, oxidative injury to the body's molecules and cells, as with chronic, inflammatory conditions such as atherosclerosis, a condition in which fatty material collects along the walls of arteries.
Many of these studies suggest that people would need to consume impossibly large amounts of red wine in order to see any antioxidative benefit, because polyphenols are extensively metabolized during absorption in the intestines, said Laranjinha. Estimates range anywhere from a couple of bottles per day, to 10,000 per week.
But an earlier study by the same team and published in Free Radical Biology & Medicine in 2008 found that red wine's benefits may begin before it reaches the intestine. "We started to check for beneficial effects occurring before the absorption phase, that is in the stomach," said Laranjinha. "Overall, the observations of the current study suggest a new pathway for the health benefits of wine ethanol and polyphenols in humans, beyond antioxidant activity, via production of nitric oxide."
While in large doses nitric oxide is a pollutant, in smaller amounts it can dilate arteries, helping blood flow. It also has the ability to "relax" the walls of the stomach, allowing nutrients to pass more freely into the bloodstream. In the earlier study, Laranjinha and his team noted that red wine showed a higher level of another chemical, called ethyl nitrite, when compared to non-alcoholic beverages and brandy. Ethyl nitrite, they found, reacts with potentially harmful free radicals, called nitrites, by chemically converting the molecules into nitric oxide. (Nitrites are found in salty and processed meats and can react poorly in the body, forming carcinogens.)
For the current research, the Portuguese researchers used samples of various red-wine polyphenols, such as catechin, epicatechin and quercetin, which are also found abundantly in apples, berries and onions.
To test if these polyphenols reduce the levels of nitrites in the stomach, the scientists examined the combined effect on preserved rodent gastric strips and on a sample of synthetic stomach acid. After 60 minutes of being exposed to the polyphenols, the stomach strips relaxed and the acid showed high levels of ethyl nitrite.
Taking it one step further, they recruited six healthy volunteers to eat a serving of lettuce, which is known to produce nitrites in the stomach, then served them red wine. After 60 minutes the participants would regurgitate into airtight containers so the contents could be examined. The scientists also found high levels of nitric oxide in the stomach acid.
"Both major [components] of red wine, the polyphenols and the ethanol, may induce beneficial effects via production of nitric oxide," said Laranjinha. "Mechanistically, the polyphenols reduce the nitrites consumed in the diet into nitric oxide in the stomach, and the ethanol reacts with nitrite and derived species in the stomach yielding a new molecule, ethyl nitrite, that releases the nitric oxide."
Monday, July 13, 2009
Federal Court Tells Out-of-State Wine Stores to Stay Out of New York
Federal Court Tells Out-of-State Wine Stores to Stay Out of New York
Appellate decision affirms state's right to ban shipments from stores in other states
Mitch Frank
Posted: Thursday, July 02, 2009
New Yorkers who order wine online from retailers in other states are breaking the law, according to a decision handed down Wednesday by a federal appeals court. The ruling is the latest salvo in the war over wine shipping, and only promises to spark further legal fights.
A three-judge panel on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that New York's law permitting in-state retailers to ship wine directly to consumers but forbidding out-of-state retailers from doing the same is constitutional and within the state's rights under the 21st Amendment. The ruling upheld a 2007 district court decision, Arnold's Wines, Inc. v. Boyle. An Indiana store and two New York consumers sued to overturn New York's law, arguing that the Supreme Court's 2005 Granholm v. Heald decision, which forbids states from discriminating between in-state and out-of-state wineries, also applies to wine retailers. The district judge dismissed the case and the appellate court has now concurred.
The case is just one of several in the battle between retailers and wholesalers. Since the Supreme Court handed down the Granholm decision, many retailers have argued that the decision covers their attempts to sell across state lines as well. In Texas last year, a federal judge agreed with their argument. That decision is being appealed, however, because the judge's suggested remedy appears impractical. A federal judge in Michigan struck down that state's ban on out-of-state retailer sales too, but the state government responded by passing a law banning both in- and out-of-state retailers from shipping wine to consumers.
After Wednesday's decision, both sides responded predictably. "This unanimous opinion clearly and forcefully reinforces the Wines & Spirits Wholesalers of America's view that the landmark 2005 Supreme Court decision in Granholm v. Heald preserved a state's right to control the distribution of alcohol. States not only have the right under the 21st Amendment, but also the responsibility, to require all alcohol be distributed through a controlled and regulated system designed to prevent underage access and ensure product integrity," WSWA president and CEO Craig Wolf said in a statement. "This decision out of the Court of Appeals is a strong affirmation of state power and will cast a long shadow over other pending cases, particularly the Texas Siesta Village case currently before the Fifth Circuit."
"Very simply, this court got it very wrong in their decision," said Tom Wark, executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association. "It's not a surprising decision. This is the same circuit court that was overturned by the Granholm decision. What we have here in the 2nd Circuit's decision is something that squarely ignores the commands of the United States Supreme Court."
The debate centers on different interpretations of the Granholm ruling. On one hand, the court reaffirmed states' rights under the 21st Amendment to regulate alcohol sales and importation. On the other hand, it stressed that the Constitution's Commerce Clause forbids states from discriminating against businesses in other states.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion, "Time and again this Court has held that, in all but the narrowest circumstances, state laws violate the Commerce Clause if they mandate 'differential treatment of in-state and out-of-state economic interests.' This rule is essential to the foundations of the Union. States may not enact laws that burden out-of-state producers or shippers simply to give a competitive advantage to in-state businesses. We have viewed with particular suspicion state statutes requiring business operations to be performed in the home state that could more efficiently be performed elsewhere."
"If we are victorious in our Texas case, you'd have disagreement at two different appeals courts, the kind of thing that tends to lead to the Supreme Court taking a case," said Wark.
For New York wine lovers, however, Wednesday's ruling may mean very little. Many out-of-state retailers continue to ship to consumers despite the law, which has proved hard to enforce.
Appellate decision affirms state's right to ban shipments from stores in other states
Mitch Frank
Posted: Thursday, July 02, 2009
New Yorkers who order wine online from retailers in other states are breaking the law, according to a decision handed down Wednesday by a federal appeals court. The ruling is the latest salvo in the war over wine shipping, and only promises to spark further legal fights.
A three-judge panel on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that New York's law permitting in-state retailers to ship wine directly to consumers but forbidding out-of-state retailers from doing the same is constitutional and within the state's rights under the 21st Amendment. The ruling upheld a 2007 district court decision, Arnold's Wines, Inc. v. Boyle. An Indiana store and two New York consumers sued to overturn New York's law, arguing that the Supreme Court's 2005 Granholm v. Heald decision, which forbids states from discriminating between in-state and out-of-state wineries, also applies to wine retailers. The district judge dismissed the case and the appellate court has now concurred.
The case is just one of several in the battle between retailers and wholesalers. Since the Supreme Court handed down the Granholm decision, many retailers have argued that the decision covers their attempts to sell across state lines as well. In Texas last year, a federal judge agreed with their argument. That decision is being appealed, however, because the judge's suggested remedy appears impractical. A federal judge in Michigan struck down that state's ban on out-of-state retailer sales too, but the state government responded by passing a law banning both in- and out-of-state retailers from shipping wine to consumers.
After Wednesday's decision, both sides responded predictably. "This unanimous opinion clearly and forcefully reinforces the Wines & Spirits Wholesalers of America's view that the landmark 2005 Supreme Court decision in Granholm v. Heald preserved a state's right to control the distribution of alcohol. States not only have the right under the 21st Amendment, but also the responsibility, to require all alcohol be distributed through a controlled and regulated system designed to prevent underage access and ensure product integrity," WSWA president and CEO Craig Wolf said in a statement. "This decision out of the Court of Appeals is a strong affirmation of state power and will cast a long shadow over other pending cases, particularly the Texas Siesta Village case currently before the Fifth Circuit."
"Very simply, this court got it very wrong in their decision," said Tom Wark, executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers Association. "It's not a surprising decision. This is the same circuit court that was overturned by the Granholm decision. What we have here in the 2nd Circuit's decision is something that squarely ignores the commands of the United States Supreme Court."
The debate centers on different interpretations of the Granholm ruling. On one hand, the court reaffirmed states' rights under the 21st Amendment to regulate alcohol sales and importation. On the other hand, it stressed that the Constitution's Commerce Clause forbids states from discriminating against businesses in other states.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion, "Time and again this Court has held that, in all but the narrowest circumstances, state laws violate the Commerce Clause if they mandate 'differential treatment of in-state and out-of-state economic interests.' This rule is essential to the foundations of the Union. States may not enact laws that burden out-of-state producers or shippers simply to give a competitive advantage to in-state businesses. We have viewed with particular suspicion state statutes requiring business operations to be performed in the home state that could more efficiently be performed elsewhere."
"If we are victorious in our Texas case, you'd have disagreement at two different appeals courts, the kind of thing that tends to lead to the Supreme Court taking a case," said Wark.
For New York wine lovers, however, Wednesday's ruling may mean very little. Many out-of-state retailers continue to ship to consumers despite the law, which has proved hard to enforce.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Check Out What Wines to Pair w/ Asian Cuisine
Occasionally I run across good articles which offer excellent tips on improving a business and I will be putting these links on my blog. This is a good artlcle for owners of Asian restaurants and I think illustrates the growing popularity of wine in general and its importance for restaurants in making the dining experience better for their customers and adding a potential profit center for the restaurant.
"What Wines to Pair with Asian Cuisine?"
"What Wines to Pair with Asian Cuisine?"
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Son Isaac on Camel in Tangiers
