Why only 1 drink a day allowed if you want to be healthy in the U.S.?

[CTyankee]

Our healthcare system says only 1 drink a day for women, 2 for men. Any more than that is undesirable from a public health standpoint. Is that what European healthcare systems recommend? When I was traveling in Sicily, I saw plenty of people drinking wine both at lunch and at dinner, so I figure they were imbibing more than what is considered OK here.

Can anybody throw some light on this issue? Are the French, Italians, Spaniards (and the Greeks too, for that matter)really that worse off healthwise than we are? If not, what's really going on here?

[RB TexLa]

1. The distillers and breweries didn't give enough money to get more

drinks listed. The orange growers do the best job of it.

[texastoast]

2. According to my European friends

They drink often, but do not drink a lot. The purpose of their drinking is not the buzz.

Europeans generally walk more also. That can certainly make a difference in health.

[CTyankee]

3. True but our docs don't say "If you walk a lot, more than

1 drink is OK."

I agree that the attitude about wine should be more about how we regard food. To me, wine with dinner is great. Sitting around in a bar drinking wine is not at all what I want to do.

[WI_DEM]

6. Very true

In Europe drinking is part of the meal, but they don't drink like way too many people here do (well I shouldn't say they all don't) to get drunk or have the buzz that alcohol produces.

[deaniac21]

4. I drink all day long every day. It keeps my appetite down. You

just have to drink fluids with no calories.

[ThomWV]

5. Your Liver Was Not Designed To Process A Single Ounce Of Alcohol

What on earth makes you think that anyone needs to drink at all?

The world would be one hell of a lot better place if there wasn't and never had been any such thing as alcohol.

[SmokingJacket]

7. People say the same thing about religion...

but neither one's going anywhere.

[Tesha]

9. Actually, it *WAS* designed to process alcohol.

> Your Liver Was Not Designed To Process A Single Ounce Of Alcohol
>
> What on earth makes you think that anyone needs to drink at all?

Actually, it *WAS* designed to process alcohol. Otherwise, our
hunter/gatherer ancestors would have been at real risk if they
ate any fruit, as plenty of ripe fruit has "gone slightly over".

This is not to say that we should deliberately exercise our livers
in this way, especially to the tune of several ounces of ETOH each
day, but rest assured, it's a part of the natural world and isn't
deadly in small quantities.

(And strangely enough, many species of animals have been observed
to deliberately seek out that fruit that's "gone slightly over" -- I
wonder why???)

Tesha

[Random_Australian]

12. The liver can process alcohol. And many, many other things.

It does not mean that these things are good for you, but it does mean that your liver can get rid of it.

[catmandu57]

8. One is too many and a thousand isn't enough

for me anyway, if someone can stop at one or two great but when I was inbibing I sure couldn't stop there.

[CTyankee]

10. and that leads me to my next question

Since Europeans drink more than we do, are there more alcoholics in Europe than in the U.S.?

[Random_Australian]

13. Nope, alcoholism is something else entirely.

But population consumption rates are correlated with alcholic numbers, but alcholism is much more affected by sociocultural factors - for instance, the U.S's use of alcohol as a social lubricant increases the risks in people predisposed to social anxiety disorders.

But there are many, many factors to consider.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. The UK uses 'units of alcohol' - 10ml of pure alcohol

So if an American beer is 4.5% alcohol, and 330ml, that's 1.5 units. A bottle of wine at 13% and 750ml is 10 units. The recommended limits are 2-3 per day for women, and 3-4 for men.

[CTyankee]

14. Do continental Europeans use the UK standard? n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. I don't know

I did find a European Union health document, saying just one unit per day for a woman, and 2 for men - but if the UK ignores that (and the 2-3 and 3-4 came from the UK Department for Health), other countries probably do as well.

A government recommendation about drinking, in terms of health, would almost certainly be completely ignored by the French anyway; other countries would quite likely have the same attitude. It's not as if the UK recommendation seems to have much effect on people, and we tend to follow rules more than many other Europeans (our roads are a bit safer than the continent). It may be an indicatioin of how government health professionals think they ought to do their job - give theoretical limits, in the hope a few follow them, and others feel a bit guilty, or be more realistic.

[Orsino]

16. The people you saw in the cafes and restaurants...

...are not a scientific sampling of the whole population, nor even of their own drinking habits.

The folks dining at home may be consuming far less, and if they dine out only rarely (compared with americans), it may be unfair to draw the obvious conclusion.

I'd also be interested in scientific studies.

[CTyankee]

17. Yes, you are right. I know it is in no way a scientific study!

I do know that Sicilians and Italians often grow their own grapes and make their own wine for home use. That suggests to me only that they are more at ease with wine drinking than we seem to be. And it is part of a meal so it becomes a foodstuff.

In this country we seem to be at polar opposites in drinking: either dry as a bone or drinking just for a buzz. That just makes me wonder about the socialization of drinking in the U.S. as opposed to Europe.