4 ms·

What is "pure alcohol" (the linked source refers to "absolute alcohol")? Because I have trouble imagining the average American (or whatever person) drinking 2.

What is "pure alcohol" (the linked source refers to "absolute alcohol")? Because I have trouble imagining the average American (or whatever person) drinking 2.3 gallons of ethanol in a year. A 4% beer is 0.5 fl oz of ethanol, which is 0.004 gallons. 2.3 gallons of ethanol would be more than 575 4% beers per year. I definitely don't believe the 50% of Americans consume that much alcohol in a year. Supposedly 40% of people don't even drink alcohol, at all. The 7.1 gallon figure seems nonsensical too. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/03/10-facts-about-americans-and-alcohol-as-dry-january-begins/sr_2024-01-03_dry-january_06-png/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/03/10-facts-... This source says 27 gallons of beer (or 297 beers) per year per capita, but I bet alcohol consumption is distributed such that 90% of consumption is by 10% of people, or even less.

FeteCommuniste 9mo ago
For the top two deciles you have 15 and 74 drinks/week: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2014/09/drinking.jpg&w=1440 https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://w... If we take oz of hard liquor, which is set at 40% alcohol, we get: 74 * 52 * .4 / 128 [oz/gallon] = 12.025 gallons of pure alcohol in a year And: 15 * 52 * .4 / 128 = 2.44 gallons of pure alcohol I think the folks who are really going hard pump the average (mean) up a lot.
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wildzzz 9mo ago
Anecdotally, I know people that have a couple drinks after work each day. Two 5% beers x 5 days x 52 weeks is already 2.4gal of ethanol a year and that's not counting what they drink on the weekends. A friend's mother drinks like half a bottle of wine a night, that's 2.6gal/ year. Granted, most people don't drink like that but that's the kind of habitual drinking that most people probably wouldn't consider a drinking problem. People that only drink socially and not to excess won't get close to 2.3gal a year but habitual drinkers and alcoholics will easily surpass that. I'm sure the median is a lot lower. Even just a fifth of liquor a week puts you at 4.8gal/year and real alcoholics are drinking a lot more than that.

FeteCommuniste 9mo ago

For the top two deciles you have 15 and 74 drinks/week: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2014/09/drinking.jpg&w=1440 https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://w... If we take oz of hard liquor, which is set at 40% alcohol, we get: 74 * 52 * .4 / 128 [oz/gallon] = 12.025 gallons of pure alcohol in a year And: 15 * 52 * .4 / 128 = 2.44 gallons of pure alcohol I think the folks who are really going hard pump the average (mean) up a lot.

deleted 9mo ago
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wildzzz 9mo ago

Anecdotally, I know people that have a couple drinks after work each day. Two 5% beers x 5 days x 52 weeks is already 2.4gal of ethanol a year and that's not counting what they drink on the weekends. A friend's mother drinks like half a bottle of wine a night, that's 2.6gal/ year. Granted, most people don't drink like that but that's the kind of habitual drinking that most people probably wouldn't consider a drinking problem. People that only drink socially and not to excess won't get close to 2.3gal a year but habitual drinkers and alcoholics will easily surpass that. I'm sure the median is a lot lower. Even just a fifth of liquor a week puts you at 4.8gal/year and real alcoholics are drinking a lot more than that.