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America has a drinking problem

theatlantic.com

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#431

Post by rkk3 »

thebean11 wrote: post #83
rkk3 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

9 Gallon is 34 Liters, 11 drinks per Liter of Vokda/Liquor 9*11 = 374 drinks per year or 1 drink a day Its probably that Average/mean drinking amount isn't a good statistical representation when almost all the consumption is done by the top 10% of drinkers. Historical comparisons also are tricky because sizes and %'s aren't consistent to today. Beer/Cider weren't as strong and bottle's of wine were smaller than 750ml…

Where are you getting 11 drinks per liter of vodka? I'm getting twice that (1.5oz shots)

You're right, looks like I grabbed that too quickly. They were citing for standard drinks/pours.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#432

Post by Sophistifunk »

koolba wrote: post #132
phkahler wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more weight loss to be had switching from Diet Coke to water. It's obviously not the calorie content, but the insulin response from sweet tasting things that will occur even with artificial sweeteners.

Does that apply to all artificial sweeteners such as sucralose or is it specific to aspartame?

People (probably those with controlling interests in sugar cane/beet industry) have been trying unsuccessfully to find/prove any sort of real deleterious effect from aspartame specifically, and lower-calory sweeteners in general for about 50 years now, so I think we can say they're fine.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#433

Post by ashtonkem »

munificent wrote: post #397
jeffreyrogers wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we also have a very painful past and present that makes us acutely aware of our inability to socialize. This is only a real problem for a small, but vocal part of the population. Most people don't think about these issues much at all.

Culture affects you even when you don't think you're thinking about it. In many ways, culture defines the channels that your thoughts flow through.

Culture is to humans as water is to fish.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#434

Post by plandis »

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…

I’ve lived in the US for 30-some years and could really only tell you the drinking habits of myself, my wife, and a few close friends with any kind of accuracy.

Do you do research on drinking habits? How can you assume to know so much about the US’ drinking habits in general terms?

Re: America has a drinking problem

#436

Post by notdeadofdrink »

dcolkitt wrote: post #429
notdeadofdrink wrote: post #384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the top decile of that posted chart. Some weeks I'll be higher, some weeks I'll be lower. Usually lower, but always above the ninth. Posting on a throwaway for what should be pretty obvious reasons. In the past week I've had about three bottles of gin in various cocktails, assorted craft beers of the IPA or imperial stout variety, a couple of whiskeys, and an aperitif most days. I've been drinking mostly while…

It seems like calories would add up pretty quick, especially when you throw beer into the mix. Do you have any trouble with weight? Or is that you eat a lot less food to compensate? I suppose to some extent a cocktail in hand on the couch substitutes for snacks.

All of the above.

I eat less than the average bear, I am overweight (although not absurdly so), and don't snack while drinking. I will occasionally go a week or two in which I only have one or two beers, total, and I have noticed that my appetite is significantly larger on latter half of those weeks.

Weight is one of the primary reasons I am considering drinking less, although there would have to be quite the associated and significant lifestyle change for it to stick.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#437

Post by AussieWog93 »

monkeynotes wrote: post #421
azinman2 wrote: post #207

Having lived in the UK and the US, I firmly disagree. I had never seen drinking at the extreme levels until I went to the UK. I seriously doubt the entire articles premise that somehow alcohol binging is unique to the US. There are a lot of counties with a lot of forms of alcohol out there…

As a Brit I was pretty shocked to arrive in Australia and see that binge drinking there is next level. The Melbourne Cup horse races is like a national drinking day, my employer took everyone out to get wasted (this was in Sydney, didn't even watch the races) and then it was understood that you'd probably take the next day off.

When I read your story, as an Aussie, I felt really proud that we'd "beaten" the Brits at getting pissed. Perhaps this is part of the problem.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#438

Post by draw_down »

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…

I think that’s a silly way to respond to this. If someone were to say “America has an opioid problem”, would we really sit around and play this game of pretending like that statement is incorrect, just because it’s possible to identify groups where that is not the case? No.

Something can be a problem in America without being a problem in every single instance. The point is not every single American culture is full of drunks, the point is that this is a problem that America is having.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#440

Post by TameAntelope »

throwaway21531 wrote: post #410
TameAntelope wrote: post #261

I'm going to generalize, but the US is more diverse (rank #90 vs #151 for Germany, #169 for France, #111 for Croatia [0]) and we also have a very painful past and present that makes us acutely aware of our inability to socialize. America also has a cultural obsession with self-reliance/liberty/frontier-as-a-virtue which makes "socializing" a bit of a taboo concept, in a weird way. It's a crutch to "need" to be around…

>America also has a cultural obsession with self-reliance/liberty/frontier-as-a-virtue which makes "socializing" a bit of a taboo concept, in a weird way. The "self-reliance/liberty/frontier-as-a-virtue" culture, which is strongly tied to Southern culture, is the culture that is more open about socializing with anyone. It's Northern and West coast US culture where people don't even want to look at each other in the e…

There's a deeper "independence" in American culture that has nothing to do with north vs. south that foreigners can smell a mile and a half away, even (especially?) on "northerners".
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