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Denmark topped a list of worst binge drinkers in a new health report from the OECD – Romania and the UK next worst offenders
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- Title
- This European country tops list of the world's worst binge drinkers
- Published
- Nov 8 2023
- Word count
- 389 words
Not surprising. We frequently get similar reports in the news and it often creates a public debate about our drikinig culture and maybe we should do something about it. Though it doesn't seem to amount to much change in practice, as we have had these kind of discussions for decades.
Not that thing doesn't improve. It has in recent years become more socially acceptable to not drink in social situations. Better non-alcoholic beers also helps. But still, when people want to get drunk they still go at it pretty hard. The definition of binge drinking here with six drinks would be considered rookie numbers by most.
That's "3 beers" here in Austria (standard size is 0,5L). Which is basically how you start a fun evening with friends. If that is "binge" drinking, I don't want to learn the words the OECD has for what happens at an average barbecue here.
If those 3 beers are 5% ABV that's the equivalent of over 4 standard shots of hard liquor. Seems like a good threshold for a binge to me, when keeping in mind that no amount of alcohol consumption is truly healthy.
I'm not sure exactly what a 'drink' is, but if it's the same thing as a UK unit, then 3 (UK) pints at 3.6% ABV is 6 'units'.
If that's true then I can definitely see the article's point, because that really doesn't seem like a lot to me. Amongst people I know in the UK at least, those 3 beers wouldn't be a lot at all. You could easily go down to your local, have those three beers at a pub quiz, and leave feeling fairly sober and certainly not like you'd been binge drinking.
In my mind binge drinking is getting drunk, and most people I know would only really feel tipsy after that. I guess that shows how ingrained in our culture it is though, that what others might class as binge drinking is seen as a pretty casual night at the pub for much of the UK.
Edit: So I did a little bit of maths. The article defines binge drinking as consuming more than 60 grams of alcohol in one sitting. A UK unit (different from an Irish unit) is 8 grams of alcohol, meaning it would take 7.5 units of alcohol to class as binge drinking. Therefore, 3 pints of ABV 3.6% wouldn't constitute a binge, although 4 would.
This makes sense to me, as 4 pints feels more like a night of drinking rather than casual drinking at the pub, especially as most UK beers/lagers are stronger than 3.6%. However, I'm still surprised by this, as if you had asked me before looking at the article how many units would have constituted a binge, I would have guessed 10+. That of course isn't representative of the general UK opinion, that's my own ignorance speaking.
Also, doing the maths, it seems that 3 beers of ABV 5.2% is actually around 6 standard shots of spirit (that is: 35ml of ABV 40%), which does meet the requirements of a binge. 5 shots on the other hand doesn't quite make it there.
The sun and red meat give people cancer, teetotaling is annoying.
Time to watch Druk again :(
Seriously though, I keep seeing research about how legal weed reduces drinking, I wonder what the effect of that would be on Denmark. If that effect is true, you'd have to think its a net positive for a country that is so heavily into drinking as a form of social lubrication.
We are number one!