Drinking and Health

[Basvarken]

In the middle ages (until deep into the 19th century) they drank beer mainly because it was too dangerous to drink water. Water was often polluted.
The beer they drank didn't have much alcohol in it (light beer avant la lettre). Even kids drank beer!

[Freuds_Cat]

I would rather have one or two dark beers once in a while, rather than a whole case of light beer.

That sums up my attitude to beer very accurately.

[Highlander]

We have had family issues with drugs and alcohol, including deaths...

Personally speaking, the bottle of Macallans I treated us to at Christmas lasted until March. Weekends is a couple of beers on a Saturday night and a bottle of wine on Friday and Sunday evening between us; Roshina is 17 and can't stand the taste of any alcohol (obviously hasn't inherited my teenage genes...)

[dadagoboi]

Late to the party... but the plant cultivated in more places on earth is the grape.  And I don't think you make beer from it.  I also do not think beer is mentioned in the bible, though wine certainly is.

Yeah, northern Europeans drank beer as food and because the water in their "cities" was unfit to drink.  But that wasn't the case in southern Europe.  Truth be told, northern Europe became civilized only after their marauding hordes destroyed what was left of the Roman empire and absorbed some of the culture.  In Vino Veritas, beer not so much.  

[TBird1958]

Not gonna lie or sugar coat it.

I like to drink. Single Malt Scotch, neat with soda back is a fave, something like this......





A fifth will last me about 6 days, sometimes less.
I love a good beer too, however it is very hard on my girlish figure, so in moderation.

[dadagoboi]

It's commonly accepted that one mark of an alcoholic is consuming more than 14 drinks per week, less for women.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-high-functioning-alcoholic/200904/social-drinkers-problem-drinkers-and-high-functioning-alc

[Pilgrim]

I can't understand why people drink "lite" beer at all, unless it's just because they want to drink all day without getting destroyed.  i'd rather have a couple of real beers, then drink water or soda.  The one and only thing I can say in favor of lite beer is that it's a tad better than no beer at all.

[dadagoboi]

I can't understand why people drink "lite" beer at all, unless it's just because they want to drink all day without getting destroyed.  i'd rather have a couple of real beers, then drink water or soda.  The one and only think I can say in favor of lite beer is that it's a tad better than no beer at all.

'Light' beer has about 20% less alcohol than regular beers on average.  Miller Lite is a fermented rice drink.  It's a total "Let's make a crappy product and advertise the hell out of it.  The rubes will buy it and love it because they have no idea what real beer tastes like." 

Sort of like Starbucks and coffee.

[Grog]

Michelob Ultra has got to be the worst light beer I've ever tasted....................... Someone must like it........... 

[uwe]

14 drinks of what? Does two beers a day every day already make you an alcoholic? I drink less (like maybe ten glasses of red wine a week?) and thinking about it, a liter of beer a day probably does qualify you as a steady drinker if not a raging alcoholic.

One thing I've noticed with people with an alcohol problem is that they don't get tipsy gradually, but go from two glasses of wine and still perfectly sober to "uncontrolled/wasted by the third glass". It's like flicking a switch sober/drunk with no middle ground.

[dadagoboi]

Google '14 drinks a week'.  One drink = one 12-oz bottle of beer (4.5 percent alcohol), one 5-oz glass of wine (12.9 percent alcohol) or 1.5 oz of 80-proof distilled spirits.  Over 14 a week qualifies as heavy drinking.

[nofi]

i will not let google tell me me how to drink. damn you al gore and your interweb.

[Pilgrim]

Google '14 drinks a week'.  One drink = one 12-oz bottle of beer (4.5 percent alcohol), one 5-oz glass of wine (12.9 percent alcohol) or 1.5 oz of 80-proof distilled spirits.  Over 14 a week qualifies as heavy drinking.

I agree.  The amount of booze some people consume surprises me.  When a guy picks up a six-pack on the way home and kills it that night, he has a real problem.

[Lightyear]

Every male in my father's family was an alchoholic - including his father and four brothers.  Some were able to overcome it, some kept it in check and some not.  

My father quit drinking about 15 years ago - cold turkey - he would have been about 75 at the time.  He drank most all of his adult life and he drank heavy.  He was what I call a high functioning alcoholic in that he only drank after he was off of work - which made nights and weekends hell on us.  Nobody had a perfect childhood - mine included.  I think that growing up dealing with all of the horrid BS that goes with an angry alcoholic as a parent has a lot to do with how I perceive alcohol.  I drank very hard as a teenager and by the time I was in my mid twenties I harldy drank at all.  I do have an occasional beer or drink with dinner or friends but if booze went away tomorrow I wouldn't miss it and could survive without problems.  A heavy month for me would be 14 drinks - I doubt that I've had 14 drinks this year.

[rahock]

i will not let google tell me me how to drink. damn you al gore and your interweb.

That damn interweb.
Rick