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1. Introduction
Moderate alcohol consumption has been related to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in many epidemiological studies [1–3]. Protective effects of red wine on atherosclerosis were best investigated [4, 5]; however other kinds of alcoholic beverages, such as liquor and beer, were also found to be as beneficial as red wine [6]. Chinese liquor, a special series of distilled spirit, was normally made from sorghum or a mixture of barley, corn, rice, wheat, and sorghum, containing abundant volatile components including esters and organic acids [7], and it was widely consumed in China, having an annual consumption of more than 7 million kiloliters. Nonalcoholic components, such as esters and organic acids in Chinese liquor might also participate in the action to prevent CVD risk factors. However, to our knowledge, there were still no chronic/short-term human intervention studies with regard to the CVD protective effects of Chinese liquors.
Short-term randomized paralleled human trial was conducted in the present study to examine the effects of moderate Chinese liquor consumption on CVD risk factors in healthy young men and women. Two Chinese liquors, traditional Chinese liquor (TCL) and Chinese tea-flavor liquor (TFL), containing the same ethanol content but different total ester and total organic acid concentrations were chosen to observe whether nonalcoholic components and ethanol could exert different synergetic effects on CVD risk factors.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Chinese Liquor Preparation
Two kinds of Chinese liquors: TCL and TFL, were used in this study. Both liquors (45% (v/v) alcohol) were provided by Guizhou Meijiao Co., Ltd., Guizhou, China. TCL was fermented from sorghum, corn, sticky rice, wheat and rice, aged for two years; while green tea was added to the TCL fermentation materials to make TFL, and it was aged for one year. The materials used were firstly cooked and then mixed with Daqu powder (containing various microorganisms including bacteria, yeast, and fungi). The mixed materials were fermented for 70 days under anaerobic conditions in a solid state, distilled out with steam and aged in sealed pottery jars in order to achieve balanced aroma.
Total organic...