Spirits: Real Men Don't Drink Bourbon?

The startling study was enough to drive men to drink. According to a report released last week by the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration, bourbon, America's beloved corn squeezings, contains female-type sex hormones that may be responsible for the "feminized" appearance—enlarged breasts and beardless faces—of some alcoholic men. The culprit, wrote Judith Gavaler, a Medical Researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, may be phytoes- trogen, a female-type hormone found in corn.

"I grabbed my head to see if my hair was still there," said Art Hancock, Executive Vice President of Jack Daniel Distillery, theTennessee sour-mash whisky maker. "In the past two years, we have had so much adverse publicity about the effects of hard liquor, it is almost like having Prohibition back." His worry is premature. According to Gavaler, phytoestrogen is also prevalent in wheat, rice and hops, as well as peanut, soybean and olive oil.