How much is too much?

[thehaze]

Drinking alcohol every day, no matter what and how much, is not good for anyone, regardless of what you might hear/read. And it should not be presented by anyone as being OK or within acceptable parameters. Unfortunately, people choose to believe in " common " knowledge or common sense, wherever they might have heard that being a measurement of how things work. " One beer a day is not bad...", " My doctor says a beer a days is OK. Also, if you only smoke 1-2 cigarettes a days is also fine..." and other similar things people say to themselves and others, in order to avoid thinking/reasoning about the consequences and implications such actions can have on some individuals.

We are not made equally " tolerant " to alcohol, tobacco, and really any kind of " punishment " you might think of. I've met, heard, read about people that did this and that their whole life and lived to be 90. I'm sure all of you have. But it cannot be applied to every individual in the world, in the present time.

I say drink as much and often as you wish, as long as you fully and truly understand what this might do. And not only to yourself.

For me it's so easy to drink every day and I like the feeling, the buzz it gives you: happy, free, carefree, etc. But before I do that, I usually think if I really need it. I do crave beer and when I really do, I go drink it. I stopped doing it so often just because it's there, I'm bored, need to kill time, have friends over or they simply showed up unannounced, I think I want it, but really don't, etc.

Other things might harm you or kill you too, like stress, mentioned above. But a human being is not a sum of only one " bad " habit or one unattended aspect of life.

 

[505-Brewer]

When it becomes a problem. It'll be different for everyone.

I'd imagine for most, when they HAVE to have a drink or 3 every night, they are approaching the danger zone. When you can't enjoy things without a drink, that may be a sign too.

My mom caught me smoking something illegal once when I was a kid and something she said to me really stuck: "If you are going to smoke or drink or whatever, make it something you do, not something you are."

Does not apply to porn stars?

 

[Br3w4u]

I love caffeine. I absolutely can not go a day without a coffee or 5 or maybe a couple of sugar free rockstars. If this were alcohol most people would say that I had a problem but for some reason nobody ever says “I think you might have a caffeine problem”.

 

[Br3w4u]

Also, if you only smoke 1-2 cigarettes a days is also fine..." and other similar things people say to themselves and others, i

I don’t know any smokers that could only smoke 1 or 2 cigarettes but if you could then you might as well quit. I quit smoking 9 years ago and still crave cigarettes all the time. I wish that I never started.

 

[bernardsmith]

I think the problem is that most of the studies done that talk about how much alcohol is safe/good to drink has , it seems, been funded by the foxes of the alcohol industry. You don't want game-wardens funding the research either. What I want is scholarship with no agenda or ax to grind other than to go after the data where ever it leads.

 

[Br3w4u]

I think the problem is that most of the studies done that talk about how much alcohol is safe/good to drink has , it seems, been funded by the foxes of the alcohol industry. You don't want game-wardens funding the research either. What I want is scholarship with no agenda or ax to grind other than to go after the data where ever it leads.

Yes un biased research is always best but it can be hard to sort through and decide what is the best advice. Kind of like the famous pictures of the “damages” that MDMA allegedly causes to the brain where it looks like someone took an ice cream scoop to a persons brain. Then you find out later that the research was funded by anti drug organizations and the brain scans were done by unqualified people. BTW I am not condoning illegal drug use, just making a point of biased research.

 

[bernardsmith]

But we pay enough in taxes to demand that funding of any research performed in the name of NIH or NIMH or CDC is made clear and that all members of the research groups attest to the fact that they are not also being ...um... paid by others whose thumbs are on the scales one way or the other.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Just general discussion and I know everyone will have their own opinion but how much beer is too much? I know experts say 1 a day for women and 2 a day for men but then some people would say that drinking every day is too much. Also if you can have 1 beer everyday then can’t you just have 0 through the week and 6 on Saturday?

No to this last point - the British guidelines specifically changed from x/week to x/7 per day to cover this very issue, the damage is as much done by the peak alcohol in your body as the total volume of it. Just anecdotally - you get a hangover from the Satuday night binge, and you don't from one pint a night through the week, your body reacts differently to the binge. And even if you're doing only 1-2 pints a day, it's recommended that you don't do that absolutely every single day.

Don't get me wrong, I love the taste of beer and wine, but these days I don't often drink them to get wasted. One big thing for me was doing the dry January thing, which is as much about changing habits as anything - before I did it I found it was quite normal to split a bottle of wine most nights, but a month off meant that I broke the habit and never really went back to it. There's also some specific benefits to your liver of a 28-day pause, as that's the regeneration time of the average liver cell. It doesn't mean you have a brand new liver, it doesn't quite work like that, but I know two people who probably would have had liver failure if it wasn't for the fact they took a month off every year - they are pretty much alcoholics the rest of the year. I do know someone who had partial liver failure in their mid 30's which wasn't fun.

Hard to generalise because people are so different, but I would say that going off the booze definitely helped when I lost a ton of weight, and if you're over 30 BMI then losing some weight would definitely be good for your health.

As for the coffee - although there's less social stigma, there's some similar effects going on and your body acclimatises to it even more easily than alcohol. I periodically go through no-caffeine spells and it definitely helps, although the withdrawal symptoms can be unpleasant. If nothing else it means I only need one small coffee to jolt me awake rather than multiple doubles!

 

[mj1angier]

I average a 1-1.5 pints a day during the work days- some days 2 beers, next day none. A bit of this is tasting new brews I am making or checking my taps to see how the kegs are doing. Them maybe a can/ bottle of something new I picked up
Weekends maybe 5-8 if hanging around home. More if friends come over, less if mom comes over, lol.

 

[Br3w4u]

No to this last point - the British guidelines specifically changed from x/week to x/7 per day to cover this very issue, the damage is as much done by the peak alcohol in your body as the total volume of it. Just anecdotally - you get a hangover from the Satuday night binge, and you don't from one pint a night through the week, your body reacts differently to the binge. And even if you're doing only 1-2 pints a day, it's recommended that you don't do that absolutely every single day.

Don't get me wrong, I love the taste of beer and wine, but these days I don't often drink them to get wasted. One big thing for me was doing the dry January thing, which is as much about changing habits as anything - before I did it I found it was quite normal to split a bottle of wine most nights, but a month off meant that I broke the habit and never really went back to it. There's also some specific benefits to your liver of a 28-day pause, as that's the regeneration time of the average liver cell. It doesn't mean you have a brand new liver, it doesn't quite work like that, but I know two people who probably would have had liver failure if it wasn't for the fact they took a month off every year - they are pretty much alcoholics the rest of the year. I do know someone who had partial liver failure in their mid 30's which wasn't fun.

Hard to generalise because people are so different, but I would say that going off the booze definitely helped when I lost a ton of weight, and if you're over 30 BMI then losing some weight would definitely be good for your health.

As for the coffee - although there's less social stigma, there's some similar effects going on and your body acclimatises to it even more easily than alcohol. I periodically go through no-caffeine spells and it definitely helps, although the withdrawal symptoms can be unpleasant. If nothing else it means I only need one small coffee to jolt me awake rather than multiple doubles!

All very interesting and informative points. Thank you. I have actually quit caffeine a couple dozen times but can never stay quit. It’s just so easily accessible and socially acceptable that it’s too hard to quit. I can go to the corner store and buy a rockstar for 2 dollars and even drink it while I’m working. I guess it’s a good thing that I can’t do that with beer haha.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

There seems to be a fair amount of research to support the notion that 1-2 drinks a day is okay, perhaps even healthy, for otherwise healthy men, though more alcohol is not better. The idea of skipping drinking a few days to "save them up" for the weekend is not health promoting. As others have said frequently getting drunk, behaving badly, taking risks like driving drunk are evidence that there may be a problem that can be addressed.

 

[azmark]

Ask, the person/people who asked you to stop drinking if they can stop meddling in others lives for a week? A vice is a vice.

 

[Br3w4u]

I made it through that week just fine but have noticed that since I resumed drinking I have been drinking more. Unless I am drinking the same as I was before and I am noticing it is more than I thought. Not sure if it is related but I have decided to stop drinking for a month just to give my liver a break like was mentioned before. It’s not like I will be missing out on anything because beer isn’t going anywhere and that will be the perfect amount of time to have a fresh brew ready in the kegerator. I never really thought about the calories either. Assuming that each beer is 300 calories, having 7 beers a week is over 2000 calories . Depending on your diet and activity level you could potentially gain at least 1 pound per week at that rate.