Health concerns are legit, but have they seen the prices? A 6 pack of Bud Light is regularly 9 bucks. FOR BUD LIGHT. Forget about premium brands, those are 12 and up. Hell, small batch locals are up to 15+. Liquor hasn’t shot up quite as much, but it has climbed.
Don’t even get me started on how much bars/restaurants charge.
The bar around the corner from me charges $16 for a single White Claw.
Holy fuck
Are you sure you haven’t stumbled into a movie theater masquerading as a bar?
At that price they better throw some simple syrup in there, needs to at least have some calories at $16
Man, I wish. Check out Canadian liquor prices. I don’t drink Bud but I’m pretty sure a six pack is $16 ($11.58 USD). Hard liquor is where we’re really hit though. Whisky is my drink of choice and it’s very expensive up here. I remember going to Boston a few years back and buying a few bottles of scotch because of how much cheaper it was, it was crazy.
There’s a South Park episode about the alcohol industry relying on ten percent of their buyers being alcoholics. That was me until a month ago. But I quit because it was now rampantly destroying my body in ways that severely affected me, even when sober. I’d keep drinking if I could.
Oh well, more money in my pocket. And more mental energy for nerd projects, which I’d long wanted to get back to anyway.
Congrats! The first month is the hardest. Come check out stopdrinking@lemmy.world, if you haven’t already.
When I started, I listened to many hours of the Happy Sober Podcast. Craig Beck does a good job of exposing the tricks alcohol plays on the brain.
Keep it up! It gets easier.
I’ve sobered up for a month to eight months at a time. The difference is that the long stint was just because and I got talked into drinking by someone I was dating and then it was on top of me again. The one month stint was just to take a break. I did about two weeks right before the USA election last year, but then the asshat got in control again and I said fuck it.
This time, I really don’t have a choice. The effect on my body made it clear that I can’t keep going. I had a good run. I drank very hard for a very long time.
But thank you for the kind words. They are appreciated.
Weed is cheaper.
And is less likely to turn certain people into assholes the way that alcohol does sometimes
Yeah I never get high and want to fight
I’m gonna be honest. I need to do a lot more reading because I’m just more confused about alcohol consumption now.
I’d really like to better understand the direct health effects, like cancer mentioned in this article with low or moderate consumption.
“There is no safe level of alcohol consumption” isn’t the most helpful piece of information. A lot of things we consume aren’t completely safe. Whether it be carcinogens, red meat, or microplastics, we are always ingesting things that have both negative and positive effects.
Life is about managing risks. Eating fatty or high caloric foods, affects us a whole lot differently than eating whole foods, vegetables, and low carbs. Alcohol is just another item on the list of risks to manage.
How does low to moderate alcohol consumption compare to the risks associated with all the other sources of consumption?
🤔
“There is no safe level of alcohol consumption” isn’t the most helpful piece of information.
It’s mostly to bust the myth that there’s some level of alcohol consumption that’s actually beneficial for the health. You should never pretend that alcohol is good for your health.
Yeah, I certainly agree with this is probably the most helpful thing from the article. I’ve never pretended that it can be healthy, but I know that’s important to a lot of people.
While that may be true, there are plenty of instances where alcohol consumption is better than drinking water. Drink wine to avoid ringworms type shit.
Tapeworm? Ringworm is a fungal skin infection.
Yes I got them mixed up. Both are pretty much not present in my region.
I’m no doctor but I’m gonna guess there’s like … actual medicine you can take for that instead of using alcohol as a method of treatment
Sounds like something someone with parasites would say. 🤔
It’s technically preventative, also its more a historical issue. Basically a lot of water sources were contaminated with parasites, metals, and just general nastiness which resulted in people using juice, wine, and beer as a replacement. This cultural element lost a lot of pressure towards the end of the 1800s going into the 1900s and was even an element of prohibition the argument being that water was clean alcohol was no longer needed. Which is stupid but whatever.
Okaaay, suspect, but whatever. That’s 1. What are the rest of the “plenty of instances where alcohol consumption is better than drinking water?”
Basically any instance where the water is contaminated and you don’t have access to a filter. Boiling is tedious and only does so much.
deleted by creator
For decades the line was that a glass or two of red wine had health benefits, but they were largely deriving that by comparing data to places like Italy, France, and Spain where wine consumption is normalized and they have other health factors.
Same stuff that started driving “The Mediterranean Diet”.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/in-depth/red-wine/art-20048281
On further study though, it gets complicated:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10146095/
"Acute and short-term RW consumption seems to exert positive effects on antioxidant status, the lipid profile, thrombosis and inflammation markers, and the gut microbiota.
Importantly, a longer duration of treatment with RW has been shown to protect renal and cardiac function parameters in T2DM patients, suggesting that a moderate intake of RW may serve as a dietary supplement in diabetic patients.
On the other hand, blood pressure values, homocysteine levels, and gastrointestinal function seem to be impaired by short-term RW intake."
This is helpful.
Of course, it’s focused on positive health benefits. I’m not actually looking to justify alcohol consumption as healthy. What I would honestly like to know is if it is proven to be unhealthy.
This article is the first time I’ve actually heard it associated with cancer risk. And that is with the presumption of frequent and excessive alcohol consumption.
I’m more concerned with low to moderate amounts and what the proven negative effects are. Is it worse than consuming red meat, carcinogen ingestion, microplastic congestion, and any number of other negative factors we ingest due to a bad diet (e.g. high cholesterol foods).
As far as I know, it’s about on par. Light, infrequent drinking doesn’t meaningfully increase your risk of disease any more than moderate consumption of red meat, for example. Frequent heavy drinking definitely does.
This is what I’d like to see some data on.
You should look up the correlation between alcohol consumption and cancer rates. It’s pretty clear-cut; the graph goes down ever so slightly down* and then keeps on rising. The “safe” limit would just be a function of how high a probability of getting cancer you’re willing to tolerate.
*Medical issues are a common reason not to drink, so the cancer rate for the total non-drinking population is appreciably higher than it would be for a healthy non-drinking individual. There’s no causation behind that drop to our knowledge.
PS: I said “cancer,” but the same principle applies to liver failure and a host of other “fun” diseases.
If I can find it, I’d be curious about this.
I’m more concerned with low to moderate amounts and what the proven negative effects are. AND, is it worse than consuming red meat, carcinogen ingestion, microplastic congestion, and any number of other negative factors we ingest due to a bad diet (e.g. high cholesterol foods).
I have been following this subject for decades as I have spent most of the last 30 years selling booze.
You should think of it as like smoking weed more than eating a steak.
This makes sense. However, I’m not familiar with cannabis ingestion. I do know that smoking anything at all has increased negative risks.
I drink infrequently, but certainly more than I consume red meat. I might consume one steak a year, for example.
It’s also so incredibly dependent on genetics that it’s not even funny.
One of the many things I’ve cut down on because of unemployment. I used to socialize in bars more often.
I was drinking heavy but lack of funds meant lack of funs.
Something something recession indicator
When I was unemployed I went from drinking sparingly to drinking like six to eight beers and a bunch of shots every day. It was years of just getting messed up and having fun with my spouse.
Now it’s been way too long of doing that every day and we have bellies. We quit recently (after a medium/fast taper) and the only issue we’re both running into is horrible sleep. I assume it gets better after a few weeks.
I honestly can’t help but thinking that the different media diet nowadays is also a driver of reduced alcohol consumption. If you watch traditional TV and movies, alcohol and drinking are absolutely everywhere and invariably normalized as part of everyday life. Kid has problem in school? Mom drinks a glass of wine. Getting promoted at work, everyone a round of scotch. Vacation doesn’t count if there are no umbrella drinks.
You barely see any alcohol at all on TikTok, and I assume it’s either forbidden or demonetized on all major platforms. Out of sight, I guess, out of mind.
I hate that it’s because of visa/mastercard but alcohol is forbidden in porn too.
Beers cost $15 per pint!
Damn, only $3.50 at my local bar. $5 or so for a nicer one. And if I’m feeling cheap, Applebees has $5 LITs.
I knew it must’ve been bad given the local place that did 99¢ margaritas on Tuesdays nowjust 5 years later does $3.99 margaritas on Tuesdays
I quit.
Work stress, financial stress, time stress, family stress… I didn’t used to drink much, but it sneaks up on you when it helps quiet the noise in your head about all the stresses. You find yourself looking forward to drinking even if technically you’re not an alcoholic.
Yeah, you know intellectually what the dangers are, but so much social life revolves around alcohol and media really doesn’t help by pushing the idea. Out and drinking, bbq at home and drinking, watching sports and drinking…etc.
I quit for a bit, tried to ease into light social drinking and hated looking over my shoulder all the time to see if an extra drink or three was going to sneak up on me. Hated that. Stopped being fun.
Not just health hazards, but legal hazards, too. Get a DUI, and you instantly becomes a pariah to everyone around you, including work, who may fire you. Then there are the costs, fines, possible prison, increased insurance, etc.
Going out and partying it up in a city that requires cars, is too much of a risk, and getting drunk at home is kind of pathetic.
Also, legal/ semi-legal weed.
Earlier this year, the outgoing U.S. surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, recommended a label on bottles of beer, wine and liquor that would clearly outline the link between alcohol consumption and cancer.
“Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States — greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. — yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” Murthy said in a statement in January.
The federal government’s current dietary guidelines recommend Americans not drink or, if they do consume alcohol, men should limit themselves to two drinks a day or fewer while women should stick to one or fewer.
With the increase loneliness crisis 📈 and the decrease drinking at the local pub 📉
I think this headline is not a positive
Society needs to decouple socializing from drinking that’s all
Drinking is expensive and overrated. I was sober for the majority of my life. Went on a 1 year drinking binge due to problems at home. It was fun but I paid a hefty price for it. Not worth it honestly. 2/10 wouldn’t do it again.
Try drugs, instead
Alcohol is a drug.
deleted by creator
I’m 42 and I barely drink, even when I was in my crazy 20’s I would drink a little but I never got crazy with it. I believe personally it’s because I grew up with an alcoholic parent and most of my family were heavy drinkers and smokers. And seeing them destroy their lives was a reality check for me at a young age. Idk if that’s a factor with the younger generations now but just like politics I feel like the younger generation has learned what not to do. At least I hope so.
Same with me, I binged a few times in my 20s and it wasn’t good at all. So I just stopped drinking altogether, alcoholism is in my family genes. It’s a dumb ass habit to be honest. Waste of money, waste of health, waste of everything.
I just hope we don’t slide into another Prohibition, honestly. Between people who don’t drink because health, and the social conservatives who want a fundamentalist theocracy, we are squeezed.
For me, it’s money - I finally have a good job AND a husband with a good job, and over time have accumulated a collection of booze to use for cocktails. And if we want to go out for a drink it won’t bankrupt us. I practice moderation, one drink 3-4 times a week but never more than one, plus two months off each year, and really like that much drinking, feel good physically.
You see, to do things that cost money you need money to spend.
To get money you can get a job, maybe in a bar or restaurant.
Places that hire people need people to spend money at them to then pay people.
No one can afford the high prices in bars and restaurants on a regular enough basis.
Not enough people go to bars and restaurants to have them hire you, and with less people going there is less reason to go.
Its cheaper to buy booze and drink at home.
Government and everyone wants more money, so the price of everything goes up (booze included).
You don’t get paid enough for non essential purchases.
You go into debt, just to have a little joy.
The debts are not paid and the debt companies struggle (klama etc). They stop lending.
You have to cut spending, by not drinking (even the cheap swill at home) you save money and feel like ass less often.
You (and many others) stop drinking altogether. <---- We are here
At some point the K type recession becomes so clear and you understand that you are not on the good part of the K.
