Wine consumption

[Softie]

If you want to understand the setting of this particular limit, you need to know that the risks include "accidents"... I drink about 3-5 nights a week, and I would say I drink, on average, 25 standard drinks a week.

[Edited since my initial post]
I looked up & read the guidelines: warning - only quickly though. Accidents are included in drinks per night, but at their cutoff risk of +1.0 deaths per 100 drinkers above non drinkers the guideline would still have been 2 SDs a day.

I'd encourage others to go to this link. I intend to read more fully. It seems to me that for truly informed judgments anyone would have to understand their risk benchmarks: see Appendix 5.

Provisionally, the value judgments looks conservative ("risk averse"). The Apendix 5 tables indicate the the extra DISEASE (not accident) deaths across a lifetime drinking 4 SDs five days a week is +1.5 deaths per 100 drinkers. I was unable to quickly understand the non-drinker baseline: for instance, was the mortality rate for included diseases already 1 or 5 lifetime deaths per 100 persons?

Would like others to look at this & I don't guarantee my interpretations. But on my current read, I'm OK with 98.5/100 [women: 98.0/100] chance that four SDs five times a week will NOT cause my death from alcohol-related disease. In actuality, more than 3 SDs an evening & my sleep patterns are materially disturbed anyway. Might adopt a goal around 3 weekdays x 3 SDs + 2 weekend days x 6 SDs. And I'll encourage moderation by buying the best I can afford consistent with budget & target SDs.

I'll be monitoring my other risk factors ongoing. Also, alcohol-related accidents do matter - but that risk is quite age, sex and drinking location dependent (home is safer for drinkers, if not spouses unfortunately).

Hope this helps. John

http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/_files/ds10-alcohol.pdf

[ross67]

Personally I think Monghead is right on the money here.....someone had to say it!!
I'm a 1-2 btl a week drinker and to be honest don't enjoy an AFD. I don't drink too much at one time but enjoy drinking wine regularly mostly with a meal.

I guess its all about balance/lifestyle and sensibility


ross

[jeremy]

ross67 wrote

Quote:


Personally I think Monghead is right on the money here.....someone had to say it!!
I'm a 1-2 btl a week drinker and to be honest don't enjoy an AFD. I don't drink too much at one time but enjoy drinking wine regularly mostly with a meal.

I guess its all about balance/lifestyle and sensibility


ross

Absolutely, but balance, lifestyle and sensibility are difficult to quantify and have different meanings to different people. I think that is what this thread is throwing up. Is a quantifiable answer possible? I just can't see it...

[dazza1968]

sometimes broach the question "gee do i drink too much?" especially when we take out all these...

Thats a great effort is that a week or fortnight?

[underwraps50]

This has been fascinating with some wonderfully candid responses.
These days I work on the principle that it is better to avoid things that are known to be harmful but if you can't then use them in moderation as defined by your common sense. I personally believe that I would be better of without alcohol but since I enjoy it so much I aim for a level of consumption that is compatible with age, weight, exercise & general perceived wellbeing. For me this is no more than two standard drinks a night during the working week incl an AFD, and a bit of freedom to drink pretty much what I want on a weekend which is usually about a half-bottle of red plus a scotch/port or two on Sat & Sun.
I think your body tells you what is right for you (if you are willing to listen) and my plan is to stay healthy so that I can keep enjoying my wine as long as possible.

[Daryl Douglas]

Not that disciplined, nor motivated.

[monghead]

sometimes broach the question "gee do i drink too much?" especially when we take out all these...

Thats a great effort is that a week or fortnight?

If that is the weekly or even fortnightly effort, I think someone had misread "bottles" for "standard drinks" from the health guidelines.

[hmmm]

not a week or a fortnight, more like 2 months, mind you 7 of those top bottles were the other night...

[KMP]

To be honest I'm not all that worried about my consumption, or at least I wasn't until I took a very brief test on the US National Insititutes of Health web site.

I drink probably 5 days per week and probably have about a half a bottle most nights. So that is about 350 mls of (average) 14.5% ABV most nights or about 51 grams of alcohol at a sitting which is 3.6 standard drinks in the USA; a standard drink in the USA is 14 grams of "pure" alcohol. Based on those numbers plus the fact that in the last year I have had "on any day" more than 4 standard drinks I fit in the category of "highest risk" and "According to the NIH survey, about half of people in your drinking pattern group already have alcoholism or alcohol abuse, and the rest have an increased risk of developing these and other problems, especially liver disease." And only 9% of the US population fit into this group

Mike

PS:The amount of alcohol in a "standard drink" varies from country to country (LINK); the US is on the generous side while the UK is considerably less so.

PPS: To get grams of alcohol: A 14.5% ABV wine contains 14.5 mls of alcohol in every 100 mls and for convenience I have equated that to 14.5 grams, but alcohol (0.789 grams/ml) is less dense than water (1 gram/ml). So for 350 ml of 14.5% ABV wine the alcohol is 3.5 x 14.5 x 0.789 = 40 grams of alcohol.