5 ms·

Who is this written for? Where are these people that are unaware alcohol gets you drunk?

smcgivern 11y ago
That's not the point of the article. It's saying that because of the rate your body processes alcohol, seemingly small differences in ABV can leave much more unprocessed alcohol in your body than you'd expect. Are you saying that the answer to the question in the article was obvious to you?
- pluma 11y ago
  How is this not obvious? Your body processes alcohol at a certain rate. Anything over that adds to the backlog. If you consume alcohol faster than your body can process it, you're not going to be sober any time soon. Whether it's high alcohol beers or low alcohol "hard" drinks doesn't matter to your body. The only thing that matters is the amount of alcohol you are consuming.
  - moftz 11y ago
    I think the point is that the difference between a 4% and 5% beer is much more than perceived. That "1%" extra might not seem like its a big deal to people ready to sit down and have a few beers but it adds up by quite a lot. This article is meant for people that don't fully understand how the body deals with alcohol that it can't process.
    - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
      Its actually 25% more, right? Its not the beer (water) quantity that's significant, its total alcohol consumed.
      - smcgivern 11y ago
        If you read the article, you will find the author's answer to this question!
  - mrob 11y ago
    It's not obvious because it's unlike any other commonly used recreational drug. Alcohol at typical dose has zero-order pharmacokinetics, unlike most other drugs which have a half-life. This can result in surprising differences in intoxication with only small differences in intake per unit time, as the article explains.
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moftz 11y ago
I think its not telling you that alcohol gets you drunk but showing how quickly a 5% beer can get you drunker than a 4% beer over the course of a few beers. People may think that its just 1% extra, it can't be that much more but when you factor in the alcohol metabolization speed, that extra 1% adds up. The extra alcohol in the bloodstream will make the buzz last longer. In short, you might be ok to drive an hour after a couple 4% beers but not ok an hour after a couple 5% beers despite just the perceived slight increase in alcohol percentage.
- leni536 11y ago
  That "1% extra" is actually already 25% extra pure alcohol, even if you don't take metabolization speed into account. Comparing to the whole volume is a red herring. Although who drinks heavy beer the same speed as light beer? I don't.
notahacker 11y ago
The thrust of the article for those that read beyond the headline is that the difference in intoxicating effect beyond slightly below average strength beer and slightly above average strength beer is much greater than you'd anticipate from simply looking at the %ABV figure. I doubt even many regular drinkers suspect that drinking 5% beer leaves them with around twice as much alcohol in their bloodstream as drinking 4% beer (although regular drinkers tend to drink fast enough to narrow that gap) Certainly would have been useful to know that back when I chose beers based on optimising for units of alcohol per £!

That's not the point of the article. It's saying that because of the rate your body processes alcohol, seemingly small differences in ABV can leave much more unprocessed alcohol in your body than you'd expect. Are you saying that the answer to the question in the article was obvious to you?

pluma 11y ago
How is this not obvious? Your body processes alcohol at a certain rate. Anything over that adds to the backlog. If you consume alcohol faster than your body can process it, you're not going to be sober any time soon. Whether it's high alcohol beers or low alcohol "hard" drinks doesn't matter to your body. The only thing that matters is the amount of alcohol you are consuming.
- moftz 11y ago
  I think the point is that the difference between a 4% and 5% beer is much more than perceived. That "1%" extra might not seem like its a big deal to people ready to sit down and have a few beers but it adds up by quite a lot. This article is meant for people that don't fully understand how the body deals with alcohol that it can't process.
  - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    Its actually 25% more, right? Its not the beer (water) quantity that's significant, its total alcohol consumed.
    - smcgivern 11y ago
      If you read the article, you will find the author's answer to this question!
- mrob 11y ago
  It's not obvious because it's unlike any other commonly used recreational drug. Alcohol at typical dose has zero-order pharmacokinetics, unlike most other drugs which have a half-life. This can result in surprising differences in intoxication with only small differences in intake per unit time, as the article explains.
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moftz 11y ago

I think its not telling you that alcohol gets you drunk but showing how quickly a 5% beer can get you drunker than a 4% beer over the course of a few beers. People may think that its just 1% extra, it can't be that much more but when you factor in the alcohol metabolization speed, that extra 1% adds up. The extra alcohol in the bloodstream will make the buzz last longer. In short, you might be ok to drive an hour after a couple 4% beers but not ok an hour after a couple 5% beers despite just the perceived slight increase in alcohol percentage.

leni536 11y ago
That "1% extra" is actually already 25% extra pure alcohol, even if you don't take metabolization speed into account. Comparing to the whole volume is a red herring. Although who drinks heavy beer the same speed as light beer? I don't.

notahacker 11y ago

The thrust of the article for those that read beyond the headline is that the difference in intoxicating effect beyond slightly below average strength beer and slightly above average strength beer is much greater than you'd anticipate from simply looking at the %ABV figure. I doubt even many regular drinkers suspect that drinking 5% beer leaves them with around twice as much alcohol in their bloodstream as drinking 4% beer (although regular drinkers tend to drink fast enough to narrow that gap) Certainly would have been useful to know that back when I chose beers based on optimising for units of alcohol per £!