America has a drinking problem • Hacker News Board

Re: America has a drinking problem

#291

Post by Epenthesis » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:31 PM UTC

crackercrews wrote: post #246

kevinmchugh wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Club soda (or flavored seltzer) + bitters. There's alcohol there still but less than half a percent ABV. Not enough that it tastes boozy or impairs my judgement. Drinking one relatively low ABV beer impairs my judgement enough that a second drink sounds like a good idea, the soda and bitters never does that for me.

How are bitters with plain seltzer? I have a sodastream and am looking for some good flavors. Can't figure out anything that tastes as good as flavored bubly or lacroix and that doesn't have lots of sugar.

I personally like it a lot. It's my go-to at a bar when I don't feel like drinking

That said I also like plain seltzer and bitter flavors generally (dark chocolate, black coffee, IPAs), so YMMV.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#292

Post by smcl » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:31 PM UTC

Diederich wrote: post #203

Most of my male genetic relatives have/had a history of alcohol abuse, so I decided from an early age that the best approach was to not drink any alcohol at all, and I held to that until about nine years ago. Long research has indicated that one cup of red wine per day has measurable health benefits, so I started to drink one cup, like medicine, immediately before bed. After doing that for a few weeks, I came home fr…

That can definitely happen when you're focussed on something else than what you're drinking (or eating!). It's gonna be even more pronounced if you're drinking, distracted and not particularly experienced with alcohol. If you enjoy what you're drinking you just need to be conscious of when you refill and you'll be fine. If you don't and you're just doing it as a sort of health thing, maybe you made the right choice. As someone who enjoys whisk[e]y, rum, gin, wine and beer, I think it's incredibly enjoyable if you're able to keep on top of it and I feel a little bit sad that there are some who won't enjoy things like making cocktails or tasting wine due to abstinence. I don't want at-risk people to descend into alcoholism against their will, mind.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#293

Post by StavrosK » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:31 PM UTC

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #289

StavrosK wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not unique to the US, but the US shares a culture with the UK in this regard. It's not similar to other countries I've been to (or lived in). In Greece, for example, it's not uncommon to see teenagers being served/sold alcohol, just because it's not a big deal. People go out, they have a drink or two, and they go home. In the US and the UK, if you aren't drunk when you get home, it wasn't a good night. Nobody he…

The UK is an outlier in western europe (I think this is your point), but having lived in both countries, they definitely binge drink more than Americans.

Agreed on both points.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#294

Post by leafmeal » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:31 PM UTC

jacobolus wrote: post #267

blhack wrote: post #116

Some of my most cherished memories are those where I was out drinking wine and having really good food with my wife and friends. When people were telling stories about Jesus, the central figure of their religion, one of the miracles they told of was him turning water into wine. This is held up as one of the most important stories in their entire moral system. When the pyramids were being built, the builders were paid…

> When the pyramids were being built, the builders were paid in beer. Yeah, because water used to be much harder to sanitize, and “beer” (thick, lumpy, mildly alcoholic – think fermented porridge) is basically liquid bread. Doing manual labor all day takes a lot of calories, and cereals are much cheaper than alternative foods. It’s hardly a healthy diet though. Keeping peasants drunk enough to be pliable is a side be…

> because water used to be much harder to sanitize

They actually addressed this in the article, but sanitizing water is as simple as boiling it which is much less involved than the process of making beer.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#295

Post by jmcdl » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:32 PM UTC

maya24 wrote: post #260

Barrin92 wrote: post #135

Article mirrors my experience. For context I'm German, my wife's French and we've got family in Croatia who own a vineyard so I'm used to being around alcohol and people drinking. My first impression when I spent time was in the US was indeed how bipolar drinking is compared to Europe. We probably drink a hell of a lot more in raw terms than the average American does.Two glasses of wine for dinner, another one in the…

Alcohol is a harmful drug much worse than some of the other banned drugs on the market.

This is a common refrain but at the same time it seems to be the one substance commonly used across most of the world since ancient times. None of the other supposedly less harmful, banned drugs are so ubiquitous. Perhaps there's a good reason for this (besides varying availability of other substances)?

Re: America has a drinking problem

#296

Post by 0xcde4c3db » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:33 PM UTC

bitbuilder wrote: post #34

throwaway894345 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also drink about this much per week. I like a beer or wine or whiskey every now and again, but I've never really seen the point in getting buzzed or drunk (or high for that matter). When I do drink, I only have 1 or 2 at a time, not out of an express desire to stay sober, but because I'm usually pretty naturally satisfied by that amount. For whatever reason, I like sobriety. It's strange to me that people should th…

>as though escaping or distorting reality is inherently preferable. Maybe I equally misunderstand the motives of the heavy drinker? You understand the motives just fine. Reality for many people is some combination of boring, stressful, depressing, etc. So yes, escaping reality is very much preferable to these people. And alcohol and other drugs are very effective at this. To state the obvious, improving your situatio…

> To state the obvious, improving your situation so you don't want to escape reality would be preferable. But that takes a hell of a lot more time, motivation, resources, and effort than just cracking open that next beer.

And sometimes when you try anyway, the universe decides to punish you for it. Some people experience this multiple times. I don't blame them for wanting to escape reality.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#297

Post by bitexploder » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:33 PM UTC

quadyeast wrote: post #249

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #153

It's hard to reduce the US to a single culture. Alcohol consumption habits vary greatly from region to region, or even city to city depending on where you live. I've noticed that heavy drinkers tend to cluster with other heavy drinkers. The more you see your friends and coworkers binge drinking regularly, the more you feel it's an acceptable and even common behavior. Likewise, non-drinkers tend to cluster with each o…

that chart does not make sense to me unless >10% of Americans are AA. I can't think of anyone, besides non-drinking Alcoholics, that have less than 1 drink/wk

I do pretty demanding sport as a hobby. Even one drink during the week greatly impacts recovery and ability to perform and lessens my enjoyment considerably. It’s rather commons in my circles for people to probably average a handful of drinks per year at most.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#298

Post by DeRock » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:34 PM UTC

quadyeast wrote: post #249

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #153

It's hard to reduce the US to a single culture. Alcohol consumption habits vary greatly from region to region, or even city to city depending on where you live. I've noticed that heavy drinkers tend to cluster with other heavy drinkers. The more you see your friends and coworkers binge drinking regularly, the more you feel it's an acceptable and even common behavior. Likewise, non-drinkers tend to cluster with each o…

that chart does not make sense to me unless >10% of Americans are AA. I can't think of anyone, besides non-drinking Alcoholics, that have less than 1 drink/wk

I have many friends (and family) most of whom are in no way an alcoholic in AA, that hardly ever (or never) drink. Some just don't enjoy the effects, some prefer not to for health reasons, some just honestly prefer to smoke a joint. The fact that you can't think of a single person like that is equally surprising to me.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#299

Post by dylan604 » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:35 PM UTC

quadyeast wrote: post #249

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #153

It's hard to reduce the US to a single culture. Alcohol consumption habits vary greatly from region to region, or even city to city depending on where you live. I've noticed that heavy drinkers tend to cluster with other heavy drinkers. The more you see your friends and coworkers binge drinking regularly, the more you feel it's an acceptable and even common behavior. Likewise, non-drinkers tend to cluster with each o…

that chart does not make sense to me unless >10% of Americans are AA. I can't think of anyone, besides non-drinking Alcoholics, that have less than 1 drink/wk

Hi! Nice to meet you. There are weeks when I have 0 drinks per week, and then others where I have lots more. It all depends on mood and activities. Specifically if the smoker is running.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#300

Post by ashtonkem » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 10:36 PM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #135

Article mirrors my experience. For context I'm German, my wife's French and we've got family in Croatia who own a vineyard so I'm used to being around alcohol and people drinking. My first impression when I spent time was in the US was indeed how bipolar drinking is compared to Europe. We probably drink a hell of a lot more in raw terms than the average American does.Two glasses of wine for dinner, another one in the…

> That said I don't think solitary drinking is necessarily as bad as the article makes it out to be all the time

One of my great bugaboos is these cultural definitions of alcoholism that are independent from the actual amount of alcohol consumed. You know “you’re only an alcoholic if you drink alone” or “you’re only an alcoholic if you pour your own drinks” (apparently this is a meme in Japan?). Every culture that consumes alcohol seems to have these, and they’re all laughably naive and easily gamed. Alcoholics can and do drink heavily together, and they can pour each other drinks if that’s what it takes to sidestep some silly taboo. The only definition of this that’s meaningful is how much alcohol you drink and how often, nothing else.