7 ms·

I’ve never been much of a drinker, generally preferring soda, sports drinks, or sweet tea to stay hydrated. In my experience, this is unusual. My friends, rela

by tmm 5y ago

I’ve never been much of a drinker, generally preferring soda, sports drinks, or sweet tea to stay hydrated. In my experience, this is unusual. My friends, relatives, etc. all exclusively drink beer when doing yard work, home improvement projects, or hobbies like working on cars. When I’m at the marina, I’m the only one not drinking beer while working on their boat. Maybe all of these people stick exclusively to water in private, but I doubt it. Given that, I can see how it’s quite easy for someone to consume 5-10 drinks per day. I’ll easily drink the equivalent of a six pack if I’m working outside, and if I were a beer drinker I don’t think I’d find it excessive to drink at least that much over the course of a day. However, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the group drinking a six pack of 90-calorie light beer over the course of a day is healthier than people like me drinking a six pack of Dr. Pepper in the same timeframe. Cirrhosis on one hand, diabetes on the other. Pick your poison, I guess.

neither_color 5y ago
You're kind of like me, I simply do not enjoy doing any sort of work in a "buzzed" state so I never day drink at all. Not once have I been working on something in the middle of the day and thought "a beer would make this better" because I find the state to be distracting and the opposite of what coffee does for me in terms of motivation and focus. I spent years in co-working spaces with beer on tap and simply didn't indulge, it's not a will power thing or discipline I just don't want it. I'm not an alcohol hater either I'll still "go wild" with friends once in a while at a bar or club to make myself extroverted.
- silicon2401 5y ago
  This is similar to my experience. I enjoy the state of being drunk so I would get drunk for its own sake, not to make work bearable or something; I could never focus whenever work had an in-office happy hour and went back to work. I actually also quit caffeine for similar reasons; I loved coffee but got distracted whenever I wasn't drinking coffee because I was just looking forward to having more.
sjg007 5y ago
There's non alcoholic fatty liver disease too.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> However, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the group drinking a six pack of 90-calorie light beer over the course of a day is healthier than people like me drinking a six pack of Dr. Pepper in the same timeframe. Cirrhosis on one hand, diabetes on the other. Pick your poison, I guess. Most people choose neither option. Drinking a 6-pack of beer every day and drinking a 6-pack of sugary sodas every day are not normal behaviors. We shouldn't try to normalize things like this when they're clearly unhealthy and definitely outlier behavior.
- rdruxn 5y ago
  Unfortunately, it isn’t outlier behavior
- ska 5y ago
  TFA states that top 10% is at least equivalent 2 bottles/wine per day, which is more than your 6-pack, closer to a 12-pack. 10% is not outliers. edit to avoid confusion: this wasn't an average, this was the bottom of the 10% decile. So clearly there are bigger drinkers out there, but 10% is a lot of minimum 10-drink-a-day people.
  - kelnos 5y ago
    I think the error we're making here is that the top 10% doesn't all drink the same amount. The top 1% might drink 20 drinks per day, while someone in the 91st percentile might drink 7 or 8.
    - ska 5y ago
      That claim was for the minimum of the top 10%, being 2 bottle wine equivalent per day, which is about 10 standard drinks. Undoubtedly there are far heavier drinkers in the top end of that 10%; but 10 drinks is a lot, and 10% isn't outliers.
    - quickthrowman 5y ago
      20 drinks/day sounds about right for the top 1% of alcohol drinkers, I’ve been at that level before.
spankalee 5y ago
Why don't you drink water to stay hydrated? Sodas are liquid candy. I don't think many people eat 6 Snickers instead of food to get calories while they work.
TheCapn 5y ago
I think its about a long term tolerance thing that people build. Couple anecdotes: I was invited to my friend's bachelor party weekend. We rented a cabin in a fairly remote area of our province for an extended weekend with plans to golf, fish, campfire, and...drink. I think by the time the first day was over, the majority of my buddies had each done 12 beer plus several mixed drinks or shots. No mistaking, we were all drunk. But what sort of set things apart was the next day. I basically just nursed a few beers/drinks through the day, probably 6 max while the rest of the guys were easily 12+ a piece, I know one of them had cleaned off his first 24pack by that night. By the next day I was miserable. We were golfing in 30+ weather and I had 1 beer for the entire 18 holes, they were 6+ each. The heat, the hangover, I don't know how they do it. But it slowly dawned on me that they do this frequently. Most of their weekends are getting tankered at the lake or going through a case of beer in the yard doing chores and having impromptu bbq with the neighbors/buds while I pretty much only drank while at social outings (once a week top) and even then I never had more than 2 or 3 drinks. When lockdown started a couple of the same buds got laid off from their jobs and mentioned how much they were drinking in isolation. Again, the quantities they drank were fucking astounding while I pretty much stopped drinking entirely due to the social outings coming to an end. I've tried the "grab some beer and do the oilchange" type work myself but I find by the end my beer is warm, half drank and I was too involved in the work to think about stopping to drink. Even when I did stop, it was because I was thirsty so I'd be seeking water, not alcohol. After all the experience with this lifestyle from friends I can see where its left us (we're mid 30s now). They're overweight, a few of them struggle with health issues while I'm the same weight I was 10 years prior and healthy as ever. I just think centering your activities around having a beer is something that these people do long term and what seems wild to you or me is normal for them.
smileysteve 5y ago
> However, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the group drinking a six pack of 90-calorie light beer over the course of a day is healthier than people like me drinking a six pack of Dr. Pepper in the same timeframe Dr. Pepper is tasty, but it and Coke are dependent on Phosphoric Acid to be able to deliver that much sugar to you. This along to caffeine mean it's dehydrating you and robbing you of nutrients, not hydrating you. It's really best if you can limit this to a single or find a replacement (Kroger has a seltzer with the Dr. flavor that satisfies my addiction nicely) Ignoring the alcohol, the first near beer or light beer actually helps hydrate you and provides nutrients. But the quantity of either is what quickly becomes the problem (2nd hand anecdote). Many alcoholics start with with the 1 beer a day after work which turns into a 12 pack a day after work (as suggested by this top 10%). And once an addict develops a tolerance to beer, they escalate in the top 10% rapidly; that vodka soda become an evening thing, then a morning an evening thing.

by tmm 5y ago

neither_color 5y ago

You're kind of like me, I simply do not enjoy doing any sort of work in a "buzzed" state so I never day drink at all. Not once have I been working on something in the middle of the day and thought "a beer would make this better" because I find the state to be distracting and the opposite of what coffee does for me in terms of motivation and focus. I spent years in co-working spaces with beer on tap and simply didn't indulge, it's not a will power thing or discipline I just don't want it. I'm not an alcohol hater either I'll still "go wild" with friends once in a while at a bar or club to make myself extroverted.

silicon2401 5y ago
This is similar to my experience. I enjoy the state of being drunk so I would get drunk for its own sake, not to make work bearable or something; I could never focus whenever work had an in-office happy hour and went back to work. I actually also quit caffeine for similar reasons; I loved coffee but got distracted whenever I wasn't drinking coffee because I was just looking forward to having more.

sjg007 5y ago

There's non alcoholic fatty liver disease too.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> However, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the group drinking a six pack of 90-calorie light beer over the course of a day is healthier than people like me drinking a six pack of Dr. Pepper in the same timeframe. Cirrhosis on one hand, diabetes on the other. Pick your poison, I guess. Most people choose neither option. Drinking a 6-pack of beer every day and drinking a 6-pack of sugary sodas every day are not normal behaviors. We shouldn't try to normalize things like this when they're clearly unhealthy and definitely outlier behavior.

rdruxn 5y ago
Unfortunately, it isn’t outlier behavior
ska 5y ago
TFA states that top 10% is at least equivalent 2 bottles/wine per day, which is more than your 6-pack, closer to a 12-pack. 10% is not outliers. edit to avoid confusion: this wasn't an average, this was the bottom of the 10% decile. So clearly there are bigger drinkers out there, but 10% is a lot of minimum 10-drink-a-day people.
- kelnos 5y ago
  I think the error we're making here is that the top 10% doesn't all drink the same amount. The top 1% might drink 20 drinks per day, while someone in the 91st percentile might drink 7 or 8.
  - ska 5y ago
    That claim was for the minimum of the top 10%, being 2 bottle wine equivalent per day, which is about 10 standard drinks. Undoubtedly there are far heavier drinkers in the top end of that 10%; but 10 drinks is a lot, and 10% isn't outliers.
  - quickthrowman 5y ago
    20 drinks/day sounds about right for the top 1% of alcohol drinkers, I’ve been at that level before.

spankalee 5y ago

Why don't you drink water to stay hydrated? Sodas are liquid candy. I don't think many people eat 6 Snickers instead of food to get calories while they work.

TheCapn 5y ago

I think its about a long term tolerance thing that people build. Couple anecdotes: I was invited to my friend's bachelor party weekend. We rented a cabin in a fairly remote area of our province for an extended weekend with plans to golf, fish, campfire, and...drink. I think by the time the first day was over, the majority of my buddies had each done 12 beer plus several mixed drinks or shots. No mistaking, we were all drunk. But what sort of set things apart was the next day. I basically just nursed a few beers/drinks through the day, probably 6 max while the rest of the guys were easily 12+ a piece, I know one of them had cleaned off his first 24pack by that night. By the next day I was miserable. We were golfing in 30+ weather and I had 1 beer for the entire 18 holes, they were 6+ each. The heat, the hangover, I don't know how they do it. But it slowly dawned on me that they do this frequently. Most of their weekends are getting tankered at the lake or going through a case of beer in the yard doing chores and having impromptu bbq with the neighbors/buds while I pretty much only drank while at social outings (once a week top) and even then I never had more than 2 or 3 drinks. When lockdown started a couple of the same buds got laid off from their jobs and mentioned how much they were drinking in isolation. Again, the quantities they drank were fucking astounding while I pretty much stopped drinking entirely due to the social outings coming to an end. I've tried the "grab some beer and do the oilchange" type work myself but I find by the end my beer is warm, half drank and I was too involved in the work to think about stopping to drink. Even when I did stop, it was because I was thirsty so I'd be seeking water, not alcohol. After all the experience with this lifestyle from friends I can see where its left us (we're mid 30s now). They're overweight, a few of them struggle with health issues while I'm the same weight I was 10 years prior and healthy as ever. I just think centering your activities around having a beer is something that these people do long term and what seems wild to you or me is normal for them.

smileysteve 5y ago

> However, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the group drinking a six pack of 90-calorie light beer over the course of a day is healthier than people like me drinking a six pack of Dr. Pepper in the same timeframe Dr. Pepper is tasty, but it and Coke are dependent on Phosphoric Acid to be able to deliver that much sugar to you. This along to caffeine mean it's dehydrating you and robbing you of nutrients, not hydrating you. It's really best if you can limit this to a single or find a replacement (Kroger has a seltzer with the Dr. flavor that satisfies my addiction nicely) Ignoring the alcohol, the first near beer or light beer actually helps hydrate you and provides nutrients. But the quantity of either is what quickly becomes the problem (2nd hand anecdote). Many alcoholics start with with the 1 beer a day after work which turns into a 12 pack a day after work (as suggested by this top 10%). And once an addict develops a tolerance to beer, they escalate in the top 10% rapidly; that vodka soda become an evening thing, then a morning an evening thing.