Poll: Do you drink alcohol?

[Strazdas]

you drink too much if you drink at all in my opinion. sadly the law does not agree.

Why do you think that? From a health point of view, you live longest when you drink 24-36 g of ethanol a day (2-3 33cl 4.6% beers), beer also keep your teeth in better condition.

Alcohol supresses logic, flaws reality perspection, creates addiction and in the end gives no benefit.
Some alcohol, well, pretty much only red wine does have some positive effects and there are diseases (liek low blood pressure) that can be somewhat combated by it.
Human body naturally produce ethanol, it needs none extra. In fact pure ethanol is poisonous and as little as 100g can make you dead in a matter of minutes. where did you pull this out of, not that i dont believe you, just curiuos.
i only heard of beer ruining teeth, not helping them.

Oh and lets not forget the "i drink a 50 dollar acohol every day but ill complain tha im poor becuase my money "dissapear".

And I can't see any good reason we still sell it, beyond the fact that it's so entrenched in our cultures that there is no way to stop.

They tried to ban it, it didnt work. There was quite an effective measure in Sweden. You used to have "Acohol passport" and each time you bought any it got marked in there. you had a quota about "how much of each substance you cna buy in a month". however there was illegla importing from Norway and now the law is canceled. yet Swedes visiting me were appalled "you sell alcohol in a gas station and supermarkets? what lunacy is this. specialized stores only". im sure some swedes are going to start shouting this is not true, but thats what i was told by a friend from sweden visiting, nto saying all of them think this way.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Alcohol supresses logic, flaws reality perspection, creates addiction and in the end gives no benefit.
Some alcohol, well, pretty much only red wine does have some positive effects and there are diseases (liek low blood pressure) that can be somewhat combated by it.

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/AlcoholAndHealth.html

Human body naturally produce ethanol, it needs none extra. In fact pure ethanol is poisonous and as little as 100g can make you dead in a matter of minutes. where did you pull this out of, not that i dont believe you, just curiuos.
i only heard of beer ruining teeth, not helping them.

"We" (the bacteria in our gut) produce about 6 g of ethanol daily, that is a bit shy of the 24-36 g I talked about.
100 g is about 8 beers. I think you would have heard of more deaths if diluted ethanol was just as effective as its pure form, which is very hard to come by in any case and even if you do good luck drinking it, I have tried (well only 96%) it's not exactly fun and more or less impossible to drink 100 g of.
I got the tid bit about the teeth from my dentist after I had told her I had cut down on my beer intake to lose a few kgs.
Also the Poison Paradox by John Timbrell (Professor of Biochemical Toxicology in the Department of Pharmacy, King's College, London) has a large section on alcohol, where he mentioned studies that even show up to 48 g being the optimal (for men).

Oh and lets not forget the "i drink a 50 dollar acohol every day but ill complain tha im poor becuase my money "dissapear".

Where did that come from? I mentioned nothing about heavy abuse, or alcoholism, I am talking about moderation and the 3-4 stupers a year thing.

 

[Bellvedere]

I drink occasionally. Once upon a time I went out every week, or drank at home a few nights a week. I guess that sort of lifestyle became less interesting as the novelty wore off. It's fun on an irregular basis though.

 

[The Night Angel]

I drink it in moderation, about once every two weeks, and never more than four or five pints. That's quite a small amount for an Irish college student....

 

[Fuhrlock]

It always surprises me how many people don't drink because they don't like the 'taste', personally I find alcoholic drinks generally are better tasting than non-alcoholic drinks (each to their own I suppose).

Anyway I drink regularly 1-3 nights a week (depending on how social I'm being), and I'd like to think I drink a moderate amount on most occasions. Luckily the only times I've ever gone to 'blacked out' levels of drunk was back when I was an undergrad and I hadn't learned the 'delight' of long hangovers and playing detective for what happened after you blacked out (though I always continued to impress myself that never threw up as a result of excessive drinking). These days the worst I ever get is a couple extra seconds to get the key in the lock and/or thinking a kebab is a really good idea, but thats probably no more than once a month.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Nope. I don't really have a problem with people doing it so long as they can handle their shit, but I simply do not trust myself. I know myself enough to know that losing control of my mental state even partially and being susceptible to act on some of my more fucked up thoughts is the last thing I want to do.

 

[Starik20X6]

I didn't drink until I was a few months over the legal age. The reason I was so hesitant to start was due to my uncle's alcoholism killing him, and I was scared I may fall to the same fate. Despite a near miss, that hasn't come to pass and I'm much more in control of my drinking. Nowadays, drinking is great fun.

 

[Queen Michael]

No, I need to spend the money on comics.

 

[Strazdas]

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/AlcoholAndHealth.html

quite a long list, mostly of statistics of association and corelation, without causation or regression. not to mention most of it looks like "we had more people who drank, we had more people who drank and didnt die, therefore drinks makes people not die". reminds me of this: http://www.allowe.com/Humor/book/Bread%20Kills.htm

So i went checking and these studies appear to be at least somewhat true. HOwever same studies appear to suggest smoking is also beneficial, so yeah, not going to listen to these.
Also one has to consider the population bias, as abstainers are often abstaining more than just alcohol (like for religiuos reasons) therefore there could be other factors influencing the moratlity quite easily. Still, learnt something new.

Still could not find the 24-36g measurement.


Pure ethanol can be avessible by industries or for special uses (like telescopes). it is not sold to general public (at least here its illegal to do so). however there is a big difference between distilled and pure ethanol.

Also What i heard from my dentist is that beer damages teeth so its kinda dentist against dentist now. Not saying either one is right or wrong, but never heard that beer helps with anything like that.

Where did that come from? I mentioned nothing about heavy abuse, or alcoholism, I am talking about moderation and the 3-4 stupers a year thing.

i wasnt meaning you directly, but i saw enough people like this.


This post was kinda a mess of thoughts as i typed it over 30 minutes with intervals to go check up on those studies. But generally you do seem to have a point. Still personally i would rather find a way to make these bodily changes available without the intoxication effect. until then, id rather live shorter than have to deal with alcohol intoxication every day (your body treats it like poison). I can see such consumption for some medical reasons now, but the rest still stand.

 

[Myndnix]

I don't drink for two reasons- all of it tastes vile, and it's way too expensive.
I've noticed that every alcoholic drink either tastes like metal or just tastes extremely bitter. Even though each one is meant to have it's own 'flavour', they all fall into one or the other.

 

[Scarecrow]

I got very drunk on my first time drinking. Hurt myself during it, and tried to kill myself the next morning. That soured my feelings towards drinking, so I don't drink at all now.

 

[Karhukonna]

There's no poll option for "I drink rarely, but get totally wasted when I do", which is pretty much what I do whenever I happen to drink. I tell ya, gin is a deadly drink. So sweet and friendly, but the moment you turn your back, it stabs you in the back with sodrunkyoucan'tstantupstraight. Itis. Yeah, it stabs you with a disease I made up just now.

But I also enjoy getting mildly tipsy when I'm expected to still function towards the end of the evening, or if the drinking is to continue for several days. I swear, being drunk for three days straight sounds like a really cool idea, but that last morning... The horror. The shakes. The denied hair o' the dog.

 

[Xukog]

No, for 2 reasons. One,my family has a history of being pretty bad alcoholics,and two,I honestly don't know if I would end up acting out some of the stupider thoughts I have when I get depressed. Nothing against people who drink though,well besides the people get drunk and do something harmful to themselves and others.

 

[zehydra]

Z

I would say that. Look, I don't think we're going to agree because our opinions are just too different on this matter. I'll end my part in this conversation by saying that as someone who drinks, to someone who doesn't, I don't think your interpretation matches the reality of the situation.

And I'll say, being a drinker does not make you qualified to understand what alcohol does to you. You can know what you feel, but that doesn't mean you understand what's actually going on. I live with people who drink and I've done my research, so...

 

[Zyxx]

Dislike the taste, doesn't mix well with my medicine, and knowing myself I'm probably an alcoholic waiting to happen, so I don't bother with it. Plus, I don't need any "social lubricant": my grasp on social situations is already so tenuous that any lube will send it flying right out of my hand.
Sometimes people give me shit about it, so I like to tell them horrible (totally fictitious) stories (different one every time, of course) about being abused by my uncle or beating my pregnant girlfriend while drunk.
There's also my standby of "Alcohol reduces inhibitions, and right now inhibition is the only thing stopping me from killing everyone in this room."

 

[game-lover]

I'm option 3.

Nope, don't like the taste. I've given it a good shot since I hit 21 but eh...

Champagne is practically tasteless. The one time I tried liquor it was poison and burned going down. And that was it mixed with lime juice or something. Wine is more bittersweet than not. I even tried a spritzer. Nope.

Then again, there's probably a whole lot more variety I've yet to try. But at the moment, it's not looking good for prospects.

 

[Artina89]

I have one or two drinks from time to time, but I don't drink to excess. I like to remember what happened the night before, and I have had to escort plenty of my friends home after they have had one too many.

 

[minispike47]

I drink relatively regularly. I'm at univeristy and its a good way to unwind and socialise. The problem is that i'm a lightweight and end up drinking too much and being sick. I'm a mess at times. My flatmates must get pretty pissed off when they have to look after me on a night out so that I won't do anything stupid.
Once i'm back from uni I won't drink nearly as much, or as often.