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Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

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Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One British pint is 568mL, and one "unit" of alcohol is 10mL -- I think the latter might be a European standard. That makes a ½pt (284mL) beer, at 3.5%, almost exactly 10mL of alcohol (284*0.035 = 9.94). The average beer is stronger than it was 20 years ago, but there's still a feeling that 1pt = 2 units in Britain.

Wow. 3.5% beer...is almost unheard of in the USA, especially in the face of the overwhelming popularity of “craft” and “micro” brews which often click in above the 6% mark

Blue moon, which I prefer, sits right at 3.2%.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#143
post #32
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article says a 12 oz beer (slightly larger than the standard 330ml beer) is 1 drink for the purposes of the study.

I couldn't get beyond the paywall, but did they mention which sort of beer? Standard Bud/Miller products? Using a 12 oz beer as a starting point doesn't mean much in a craft beer world with most "good" beers ranging from 5-8% ABV. Edit: not really understanding the downvotes? Alcohol content is extremely important in understanding the meaning of a "drink". Not trying to be pedantic, but now more than ever, "a beer" i…

You probably got downvoted for sounding like one of those "craft beers are good and everyone else drinks crap/I'm so tasteful" hipsters

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#144
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the study which was linked in another comment [1] they were using the standard defined in [2]. This site shows that one pint of lager counts as 2 units of alcohol. One pint is 19.2 oz [3]. A bottle of beer is usually 12 oz, aka 5/8 of a pint, aka 1.25 units of alcohol. I trust the source over the science journalist. [1] http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2353 [2] https://www.alcoholconcern.org.uk/unit-c…

One British pint is 568mL, and one "unit" of alcohol is 10mL -- I think the latter might be a European standard. That makes a ½pt (284mL) beer, at 3.5%, almost exactly 10mL of alcohol (284*0.035 = 9.94). The average beer is stronger than it was 20 years ago, but there's still a feeling that 1pt = 2 units in Britain.

Draught beer is served in 25cL in France. But the alcool unit is not defined as in the UK. 1 unit is 10g of ethanol, not 10mL, so I don't know about a European standard. Alcool has a density of 0.789, so about 12.7mL. So just over 5% alcool for 25cL. It's possible to find lager beer at 5%, but the trend is for stronger beer. But a bottled 33cL 7.5% craft beer would be about 2 french units.

*edit: there is no EU standard, UK 8g, France 10g, Germany 14g https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_drink#Definitions_in_...

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#145
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. 3.5% beer...is almost unheard of in the USA, especially in the face of the overwhelming popularity of “craft” and “micro” brews which often click in above the 6% mark

Blue moon, which I prefer, sits right at 3.2%.

The standard Blue Moon is 5.4%. There's a 3.2% variant, but it's only sold in a handful of U.S. states (like Utah and Oklahoma) that have a 3.2% cutoff for beers sold at convenience and grocery stores.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#146
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> everyone knows drinking is bad for you Citations (plural) needed. Without meta-studies and peer responses in subsequent papers and studies, this is just using a single article for confirmation bias. In the actual scientific world, studies have been mixed since forever on the subject, with moderate wine drinking for example having shown in many studies favourable results for cardiovascular health and other aspects.…

> In the actual scientific world, studies have been mixed since forever on the subject, with moderate wine drinking for example having shown in many studies favourable results for cardiovascular health and other aspects. Also many places with the most long-lived people on earth have big wine drinking populations (e.g. Icaria). everything here is irrelevant. drinking has no benefits compared to water. period. again, w…

Drinking is fun. Fun is good. Drinking is good.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#147

A Mendelian randomization study that I find convincing suggests that there is no obvious safe level of alcohol intake from a cardiovascular standpoint. This observational study linked by tuxguy points in the same direction, and it seems ripe for follow-up with genetic work that could support (or help refute) the likely direction of causality.

I've heard the opposite, basically life long drunks have clear arteries.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#148
post #86
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't get beyond the paywall, but did they mention which sort of beer? Standard Bud/Miller products? Using a 12 oz beer as a starting point doesn't mean much in a craft beer world with most "good" beers ranging from 5-8% ABV. Edit: not really understanding the downvotes? Alcohol content is extremely important in understanding the meaning of a "drink". Not trying to be pedantic, but now more than ever, "a beer" i…

In the UK we use "units of alcohol". One unit of alcohol is defined as 10 ml of pure alcohol. That's about 8 gm (I think). In the UK the strength of an alcoholic drink is given as Alcohol by Volume, as a percentage. Beer is typically about 5%. To work out the unit you multiply the serving size in liters by the ABV number. A 330 ml bottle of beer at 5% = 0.33 * 5 = 1.65 units. (The bottle would probably say 1.7 units.…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_drink#Definitions_in_... The standard varies by countries. The UK unit is 8g, the australian and french units are 10g, the american and german units are 14g.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#149

So just for reference, 14 units of alcohol (the low-end correlated to atrophy) is approximately: 7-9 (US) shots of hard alcohol (assumed 37.5% ABV) 7 pints of Lager (assumed 4% ABV) 9.3 125 ml glasses of average strength wine (assumed 12% ABV) Looks like my 2-5 bottles of beer a week habit is fine. :) http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_drink#Definitions_in_... The UK unit is 10mL or about 8g, French unit is 10g, American standard drink is 14g.

Re: Moderate drinking associated with atrophy in brain related to memory, learning

#150
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Alcohol is a poison. A meaningless blanket statement. Methanol is a poison, far worse than ethanol, yet you've likely consumed it in small quantities from what you would think of as non-alcoholic sources. If there's no safe level alcohol consumption, you'd best stick to consuming your fruit unripened or avoiding them entirely. Again, relative toxicity is meaningless without also taking dose into account. You could…

Now, how would you define "safe level alcohol consumption"? Are you satisfied with just still being alive the next day after you had a drink? Or do you want to avoid long term negative effects like cirrhosis, cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment? For me the "poison" is a substance that when ingested has a significant detrimental effect on one's health. Until recently there was a myth that moderate consumption…

By that logic then red meat, sugar, kale, broccoli, fat and a host of other foods are also bad for you.
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