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America has a drinking problem

theatlantic.com

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Re: America has a drinking problem

#491

Post by mgkimsal »

np- wrote: post #350
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'm surprised this is the top comment, what's the deal with Europeans tending to talk like they're the authoritative source on American culture based on a few people they've met and a few websites they've read? This seems like an absurd reductionist view of both European and American cultures. It honestly seems like the type of anecdotal content I would expect from a Reddit thread.

Quite right - you can't judge a place you've never been to. That's what they do in Russia. :)

Re: America has a drinking problem

#492

Post by pedalpete »

lemonberry wrote: post #357
pedalpete wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a similar boat. I stopped, but without a timeframe for how long. I just knew I had to cut back, but that wasn't working well, so I just stopped, and when I was offered a drink, I'd say "I don't drink", because here in Australia, I find if you say no to a drink, it's mostly forced on you. The statement put an end to that. However, I also internalized being an non-drinker. It became part of my identity. I don't…

My favorite non-alcoholic beverage is equal parts soda water and tonic water, a couple of splashes of orange juice and a few dashes of bitters. Tweak as necessary. At the holidays I like non-alcoholic sparkling apple juice. I also find soda water out of a can to be a good beer replacement on hot days. I think part of this is the sound of opening the can and the carbonation. No idea if any of those will fit your needs…

Yeah, it still feels like "soda", which is what I'm trying to get away from. I've been speaking to a friend about creating something new.

My requirements are: - not trying to be alcohol/imitation alcohol - not soda/juice/kombucha - has the "occasion" attitude of alcohol

I admit this is probably 90% branding and 10% the drink itself. As I was mentioning to my friend, you probably wouldn't feel strange ordering a redbull at a bar without the vodka, because of the marketing and how it isn't considered a soft-drink. I don't know anybody that drinks redbull every day (though I'm sure there are people that do).

Something more mature than a soft drink in flavor profile, something that I hopefully don't chug, so it lasts like a cocktail or beer.

Keen to hear others thoughts on that.

There's Lyres https://lyres.com/ - which pretends to be gin/wisky/etc And Non (https://non.world) - which is very juice, but at the price of wine.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#493

Post by kenneth »

jnathsf wrote: post #425
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…

Many have gone California sober [0] - moving away from alcohol to cannabis and psychedlics as a way to be more healthy and sustainable [0] https://www.addictionresource.net/blog/california-sober/

Cannabis is in no way healthier than alcohol. It's hard to quantify the damages done by one vs. the other; but there are very serious social and psychological downsides to regular cannabis use.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#494

Post by rorykoehler »

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…

Why do we perpetuate these myths about European drinkers? If you’re not drinking to get intoxicated why are you drinking? I’ve seen addiction papered over with this nonsense on more occasions than not.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#495

Post by rorykoehler »

bitexploder wrote: post #363
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one drink/wk is noticeably affecting you then you're either a professional athlete who's got world class people monitoring their performance or you need to see a doctor. Edit: Assuming the standard definition of drink that's roughly equivalent to one light beer or one shot

It’s not like I suddenly break down or something. There are a few factors in my sport. BJJ is mostly cardio so I sweat a lot. I train at or close to my limits most of the time. Recovery isn’t as easy at 41. Alcohol depletes just enough from my body and impedes recovery just enough that the next day, I won’t be 100%, and I’ll feel it. Even one drink in the evening is massively disruptive to sleep processes like REM sl…

OT: Training close to your limits all the time is counter productive. Read up on block periodization for how you get more from your training.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#496

Post by mark-r »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #339
hpoe wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well for starters you've got all the Muslims and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints sometimes know as Mormons. That's two big ole' swathes of people who probably don't drink at all.

Then you have pregnant women, and women who are trying to conceive, and sometimes their partners will also give up drinking in solidarity....

My wife asked me to stop drinking while she was pregnant, and I complied. I think it backfired though, because I drank more after she gave birth than I ever did before.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#497

Post by jdc »

ABCLAW wrote: post #485
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…

>It's hard to reduce the US to a single culture. The US had a very particular set of economic conditions in respect of infrastructure quality, volume of arable land for corn production, and corn vs corn mash distillate transport costs. The result? "[In the 1790s], the settlement of the so-called “corn belt” in the Midwest created large new supplies of corn, which was cheaper and more profitable to convert into whiske…

This is a very interesting point, however it does stand in contradiction to GP's claim that Europeans broadly drink more than Americans in absolute terms.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#498

Post by jasondigitized »

kenneth wrote: post #493
jnathsf wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many have gone California sober [0] - moving away from alcohol to cannabis and psychedlics as a way to be more healthy and sustainable [0] https://www.addictionresource.net/blog/california-sober/

Cannabis is in no way healthier than alcohol. It's hard to quantify the damages done by one vs. the other; but there are very serious social and psychological downsides to regular cannabis use.

Pretty sure alcohol is way harder on your body than edibles or vaping cannabis. Alcoholism has a huge blast radius.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#499

Post by kenneth »

pedalpete wrote: post #492
lemonberry wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite non-alcoholic beverage is equal parts soda water and tonic water, a couple of splashes of orange juice and a few dashes of bitters. Tweak as necessary. At the holidays I like non-alcoholic sparkling apple juice. I also find soda water out of a can to be a good beer replacement on hot days. I think part of this is the sound of opening the can and the carbonation. No idea if any of those will fit your needs…

Yeah, it still feels like "soda", which is what I'm trying to get away from. I've been speaking to a friend about creating something new. My requirements are: - not trying to be alcohol/imitation alcohol - not soda/juice/kombucha - has the "occasion" attitude of alcohol I admit this is probably 90% branding and 10% the drink itself. As I was mentioning to my friend, you probably wouldn't feel strange ordering a redbu…

I'm a regular drinker, but I do a dry month every year. I make it a point to not let it change my social life at all — which means still spending plenty of time at bars and socializing with people drinking. I typically drink non-alcoholic beers (there are good ones that taste like beer) or ciders when available. When not, I go for soda-bitters, sometimes with a splash of lime juice.

Lyres, Seedlip, and other non-alcoholic spirits just don't do it for me. They taste like water.

Re: America has a drinking problem

#500

Post by bnralt »

jmcdl wrote: post #295
maya24 wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)?

Fermentation is a great way to store excess food, which is why there's a ton of fermented foods across cultures. For civilizations centered around cereal crops, it makes sense that you'd see a lot of fermented cereal crops such as beer.

You can definitely see the benefit for an ancient civilization, since you're able to store many more calories which allows you to grow a much larger population base. But like many things associated with the move to agrarian civilizations, being good for the civilization doesn't necessarilly correlate with being good for the individual.

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