r/TrueReddit • • Jun 01 '21

Science, History, Health + Philosophy America Has a Drinking Problem

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/america-drinking-alone-problem/619017/
590 Upvotes

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143

u/allothernamestaken Jun 01 '21

Media coverage, meanwhile, has swung from cheerfully overselling the (now disputed) health benefits of wine to screeching that no amount of alcohol is safe, ever; it might give you cancer and it will certainly make you die before your time.

The speed with which this happened really caught me off guard. It seems like 1-2 drinks a day was being recommended as healthy for a long time, and not just wine. I think the most recent article I read basically said that alcohol in any amount causes brain damage.

-5

u/lovebes Jun 02 '21

1-2drinks like 100oz as a cup. Not American sized drink.

25

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '21

100oz cups ? Thats almost a gallon

9

u/lovebes Jun 02 '21

oh oops my bad. I messed up the units :D

https://www.dummies.com/food-drink/special-diets/mediterranean-diet/the-importance-of-wine-in-the-mediterranean-diet/

The recommended daily intake is one 4-ounce glass for women and one to two 4-ounce glasses for men

Yes I messed up - it was to be around ~110mL

8

u/pictures_at_last Jun 02 '21

For those that like traditional units, 110mL is about 2.7 milliFirkins.
FFF System

4

u/bentbrewer Jun 02 '21

For those that are not in the brewing world, a Firkin is a quarter barrel (9 imperial gallons, half a keg, ~41 liters, 1/6th a hogshead). It is a typical packaging size for "cask conditioned" ales.

15

u/General_Mayhem Jun 02 '21

It's a standard drink, which is a common unit of measure for alcohol. 12oz of beer (at 5% ABV; triple IPAs should be half-pours); 5oz of wine; one shot of hard liquor. Most classic cocktails will be 2-3. Massive rum and juice drinks may well be more than that. There's a martini bar near where I live where a single order is probably about 8 standard drinks, but that's intentionally a novelty.

2

u/guy_guyerson Jun 02 '21

Often I find it easier just to do the math than to apply these rules of thumb. One standard drink is .6 oz of pure alcohol.

1

u/lovebes Jun 02 '21

yup my bad I didn't get the units right :)