The moderate consumption of alcohol is associated with better health and greater longevity. That’s in comparison to either abstinence or heavy drinking. However, the strong temperance tradition in the US leads many people to resist this medically established fact. This reflects how alcohol, tradition, and health are closely related. Sante. Skoal. To your health. It’s …
In “The perils of drinking in America,” reporter Simon Calder of the Belfast Telegraph alerts readers traveling to the U.S. what to expect. He explains that the U.S. has created a tangle of confusing laws designed to deter drinking, especially among young people. For example, 48-year-old Rachel Ally was required to prove she was 21 …
Public policy in the U.S. calls for complete alcohol abstinence by all people under age 21. However, it’s highly unsuccessful. Indeed, the policy has actually been counterproductive. That is, causing more problems than it prevents. We absolutely must replace failed programs with effective alcohol education. Alcohol education programs are virtually mandated by law to present …
Journalist Jeff Frantz reports that Europeans learn responsible drinking. Thus young Europeans are more responsible about drinking than those in the U.S. Here’s his piece. The 21st-birthday bar tour — it’s a staple of American life. You blow out the candles, go to a bar, drink, vomit, pass out. You laugh the next day when …
Journalist Logan Jenkins describes what he sees as America’s drinking problem. See if you agree. A Canadian friend, the mother of a graduating high school student, telephoned recently for some parenting advice. Her son wanted to throw a pre-prom party at his Montreal home. The question: Should alcohol be served, as her son requested? …
What is the role of drinking alcohol sex and violence? Does alcohol disinhibit? Is intoxication ever a valid excuse for rape or violence? Sexual arousal, aggression, domestic and other violence, and rape are often blamed on the influence of alcohol and intoxication. Surprisingly, what people THINK my be more important than what they DRINK. Evidence …
Critics of alcohol advertising often argue that it’s normalizing alcohol drinking. So what’s wrong with normalizing drinking? There’s nothing at all wrong with normalizing alcohol unless a person’s goal is eliminating drinking in favor of forced abstinence. The hatchet-wielding Carrie Nation would have opposed normalizing alcohol. The Prohibition Party (yes, it still exists) would oppose it. The …
When we travel, we’re often surprised at how people in other cultures do things. For example, their eating, drinking, and other life styles can be quite different. Here we look at world drinking trivia. World Drinking Trivia I. Non-Western Culture Chicha is an alcohol beverage that people have made for thousands of years in Central …
People commonly think that high consumption levels are a cause of alcohol problems are a direct result of consumption levels. That is, the higher the consumption level, the more the problems. However, the experience of societies and other social groups shows this isn’t so. In short, drinking levels aren’t the cause of alcohol problems. In …
The historic Paris wine tasting of 1976 (the Judgement of Paris) fundamentally and forever changed the world of wine. Before 1976, wine authorities largely agreed on one fact. That is, that good wine could be made in many places around the world. However, great wine could only be made in France. I. Historic Paris Wine …
