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2B Wednesday, November 14, 2012 The Statement
THE JUNK DRAWER
I Wednesay, Noveber 14, 012 / heStteen BE
The drunk diet: The science behind why
you crave NYPD after a night of partying
from last week: the new new left
What are your thoughts on our generation compared to
the one of the 60s?
I think we face similar issues but
are responding in a dissimilar way
73%
random student interview
by kaitlin williams /illustrations by megan mulholland
Welcome to the Random Student Are you going to put out a top
Interview, where you're always .f hat for tips? If I could play piano,
our favorite person inthe whole that's what I'd do.
wide world. No. I'd just do it for myself.
So, let's go back to the basics. I'm What an artist. What if everyone
talking what everybody used to boos you? What would you do?
ask each other by the monkey I can accept criticism.
bars in kindergarten. What's
your favorite color? What if there's a round of
Umm ... not really. applause? Would you consider
dropping out and pursuing a
Don't you feel like you could just career as a pianist?
be buddies with anyone?
No.
Personally, I feel like Kid Cudi
/p understands me. Have you ever
listened to Kid Cudi?
Purple. Not really. I've always considered it
as like a backup career.
No way! That's my favorite
color! You're myfavorite person! Backup career? Most people are
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We are nothing like the
60s, and I'm glad about
that
18%
I think'we face similar
issues and are responding
in a similar way
9%
What do you think are our responsibilities toward
enfranchising the low-income community members of
Detroit?
by Lucy Perkins
I don't believe
we should take
an active role
25%
I believe we
should take an
active role
75%
Why purple?
I don't know why.
Well, purple is my favorite color
because...
It's pretty.
Yeah. How did you know what I
was going to say? This is freaky.
Quick. Who's your favorite
celebrity?-
That's a hard one.
It shouldn't be that hard. There's
no wrong answer.
I don't know. My favorite celebrity?
I can't tell.
Yeah.
OK. Then you might know what
I mean. I feel like hejust knows
what my life is like and we could
chill and it wouldn't be weird at
all.
I like The Fray.
The Fray? Do you feel like their
songs are about your life?
No. Not like that. I just like their
music. Iplay the piano and I really
like their use of piano.
Oh, nice. Do you ever playthe
like "I'm goingto be a pianist
or an actress or a painter, but if
that doesn't work out I'll go to
school." You're like "Meh, that's
mybackup."
Well, I just do it for myself, so it's
not something I want to do for the
world.
Oh, OK. Well, my backup is wait-
ressing and writing prose poetry
on the sides of buildings. It's
very down-to-Earth. Then again,
you're a freshman, so you're full
of hope and goals.
Yeah.
It's OK. You're still my favorite.
-Vamika is an LSA freshman.
Online comments
Beautiful article, humble, self aware, extremely socially concerned like
the Port Huron statement people. Honor the values, the important his-
tory that it contains, make the values of participatory democracy an ongo-
ing truism, an objective and bedrock to guide and edify minds and guide
actions. True enough the "cluster fucking" still goes on and the forces at.
issue are formidable and as the recent election revealed, all too grimly
intent on continuing the violent, culturally vacant, winner take all society
that has held them up all these years. The Blue and Gold, historicallyper-
sonified by the SDS and all that engendered them and followed from them,
is indeed a mighty force for the the right and true.
-Anonymous, regarding "The Lost Generation, Part II"
The flaw in this article is that it completely ignores conservative stu-
dents. You want politically and socially active students? Turn to Students
for Life. Love them or hate them, you can't ignore them, because they will
not be silenced. Survivor of the Abortion Holocaust signing off
-Andrew Patton, regarding "The Lost Generation, Part II"
piano in the Union?
You can't tell? Like it's a secret? Not yet. There's one in West Quad
Or you held an election and it's I'm going to check out though.
too close to call?
very weekend night between11 p.m.
and 4 a.m., BTB rings up more than
500 customers.
"Our motto is fast, fresh and open late,"
General Manager Brent Hegwood said.
"And I always tell my employees that 'fast'
is the first part, so if we aren't fast, that's
a problem."
Hegwood, who is also the manager of
BTB Cantina and Good Time Charley's on
South University Avenue, says his favorite
time of the year is Welcome Week, and it's
obvious why: food sales increase astro-
nomically when students have alcohol
pumping in their systems.
Like any self-respecting Wolverine,
when I drink, I'm going to eat. The geog-
raphy of Ann Arbor's campus confirms my
desires. The warm lights of Pizza House
beckon after a long night at Rick's, the gar-
licky aroma luring in students like moths
to a porch light.
For LSA junior Alexa Shull, eating after-
a night of partying is nearly guaranteed.
Shull said her favorite place to crash is
Pizza House - "feta bread and a peanut
butter Oreo milkshake, definitely," she
said. "I'd probably say three out of five
times I go out, I'll get food."
Shull's friend and LSA sophomore Fed-
erica Jonas follows suit. Jonas goes out
three or four nights a week and often stops
at Jimmy John's or Pizza House afterward
for a personal pizza or a Big John with
cheese.
"I'm just hungry, and I want to eat
something that tastes good," Jonas said.
"Jimmy John's and Pizza House are just
what's open."
There's actually a scientific explanation
for this drink-and-eat behavior. Stuart
Farrimond, a doctor and lecturer in food
and health sciences at Wiltshire College in
the United Kingdom, explained that alco-
hol skews how the brain regulates caloric
intake.
"Alcohol can cause the blood sugar level
to drop, which was presumed to be the
reason for post-drink hunger-pangs," Far-
rimond wrote in an e-mail interview.
Recent research has shown that alco-
hol directly affects the hypothalamus, the
area of our brain that controls the appetite.
So when alcohol binds to receptors on the
brain, the hypothalamus is stimulated, and
that's what causes us to get hungry.
But that doesn't mean you'd want to eata
salad after going out. When we're hungry,
we want something fast and unhealthy.
That's because when alcohol impairs the
brain, our "primitive" survival drive kicks
in and we instinctively want to eat high-
calorie foods, according to Farrimond.
This primitive drive Farrimond is talking
about is the same thing that happens after
a period of fasting, and this makes fatty
foods seem infinitely more attractive.
This makes sense, especially when you
see ravenous students inhaling tacos at
Panchero's at 2 a.m.
And, if Welcome Week got you in the
habit of eating drunk food, it will just get
harder to avoid eating after a night out.
Farrimond said that psychologically, we
tend to repeat positive cycles. Meaning
if you got cheesy bread on the way home
after a lapse in judgment at Necto, you'll
probably do it again.
This isn't promising news, and it gets
worse.
"We can regulate our food intake up to
about one shot of liquor - any more than
that and the appetite goes AWOL," Farri-
mond wrote.
So basically, if you're drunk, there's
little to no chance that your brain will tell
you to control yourself when it comes to
the greasy goodness of late night South
University food.
How to cure a hangover
After a night of house parties or scur-
rying between South U bars, many stu-
dents feel the most common symptoms of a
hangover: an overly achy body and nausea.
For some, late night food stops serve as
a precaution to ward off hangovers. Buy-
ing a fishbowl can automatically mean a
trip afterward to Jimmy John's. Others
swear buy Backroom or the doughy masses
of Pizza House's cheesy bread.
"It tastes really good but it definitely
soaks up the alcohol too," Shull said.
But here's what's happening chemically
as you watch "Friday Night Lights" in bed
for three hours the next morning.
When alcohol enters your body, it breaks
down in several stages, but before it can
be passed through your body, it is broken
down into a highly toxic chemical sub-
stance called acetaldehyde.
Then, the liver processes the acetalde-
hyde into acetic acid, a much less toxic sub-
stance. But, if the liver is overloaded - aka
one too many Jamaican Long Islands - it
can't process everything at once and leads
to that hungover feelingxye know and love.
The rest of this article may contain infor-
mation you wish wasn't true.
Farrimond dismisses urban myths
regarding legends of burrito-curing hang-
overs - food doesn't do anything to sober
you up. He added that even drinking water
isn't going to prevent the impending doom
of a hangover, though it may help relieve
some symptoms - for instance, boosting
the blood sugar level to reduce fatigue.
But some lucky students never feel the
effects, because the liver's ability to cope
with alcohol is completely determined by
our genes, Farrimond said.
So, regardless of how many slices of
NYPD students cram down their throats,
there's not a whole lot they can do except
let their liver slowly process everything.
Cue, hangover.
Though the magical and medicinal
purposes of drunk food may have been
expelled, it still tastes good, and no mat-
ter what students think it's going to do for
them, they'll still buy it.