More alcohol nonsense

darkpagandeath

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0623/625828-alcohol/

The study defined binge drinking as "consuming 60g or more of pure alcohol on a single drinking occasion. This corresponds to a minimum of three pints of beer or six pub measures of spirits or 600ml of wine".

Now lets use these figures for the EU and find were not as bad as them, oh wait that won't promote a stereo type of us all being alchos.

folan

im not sure, am i drinking to much or too little?

wexie

3 pints is considered 'a binge'?

By who? Quakers?

punisher5112

Its the ones drinking everyday that are damaging their health that is crazy talk they are on about.

I go out on occasion have a few drinks happy out.

Clean up the zombies in the cities and alcho then problem solved :-)

Captain Chaos

3 pints is a social drink with a nice fillet steak on the stone. Binge me hoop.

What was the old drink drive limit about 15 years ago again.......

darkpagandeath

wexie wrote: »

3 pints is considered 'a binge'?

By who? Quakers?

If it's wine or vodka fair cop but it's not...

Chancer3001

On a single drinking occasion?

Sometimes my occasions last Friday - Sunday.

I think I'd be expelled from the eu if they tallied my figures

Tardful Slakerly II

If you have just the few, 2 or 3, then you're doing much less damage to your health, even if you drink regularly. When you start downing drinks then you do a lot more harm. So binge drinking is the term used for going over a safe limit of consumption, even regular consumption which isn't frowned on by itself.

People who get narky about the phrase binge drinking miss the point in spectacular fashion. Cue a hoard of people saying they drink 15 pints a night and it's never done them any harm. :rolleyes:

wexie

darkpagandeath wrote: »

If it's wine or vodka fair cop but it's not...

nah, 3 pints of wine is having the neighbours over for dinner.

3 pints of Vodka is waking up behind a dumpster without your underpants and phone but with a new tattoo of Ryan Tubridy shagging a goat*


* if you have done this before, this is definitely a binge

wexie

Chancer3001 wrote: »

On a single drinking occasion?

Sometimes my occasions last Friday - Sunday.

I think I'd be expelled from the eu if they tallied my figures

I think it was it Bill Hicks who said : 'I'm a weekend drinker, start on Sunday, end on Saturday....'

darkpagandeath

Tardful Slakerly II wrote: »

If you have just the few, 2 or 3, then you're doing much less damage to your health, even if you drink regularly. When you start downing drinks then you do a lot more harm. So binge drinking is the term used for going over a safe limit of consumption, even regular consumption which isn't frowned on by itself.

People who get narky about the phrase binge drinking miss the point in spectacular fashion. Cue a hoard of people saying they drink 15 pints a night and it's never done them any harm. :rolleyes:

That's because 3 pints and binge should not be in the same sentence. Everyone knows exactly what binge drinking is. This is just more nonsense, lets ask our EU neighbours if this article fits the description of binge... And if it does i bet they binge way more than us.

MS.ing

pffft, I drink 4028 pints in a night and spend the next day conducting surveys like this

AnonoBoy

Bah! Binge-drinking at three pints?

Back in my day you had to really knuckle down and work to go on a binge. You had to prep yourself, line your stomach, clear your whole next day from responsibilities.

These days, you can binge in an hour and be back at work with nobody any the wiser.

And the Leaving Cert was harder too!

Kids these days, they don't know how easy they've got it.


:mad:

hatrickpatrick

At this stage I honestly regard all this stuff as propaganda.

darkpagandeath

I love the average price to is that just a pint €4.58 ? And that's not a pint near me. Spirit with orange or whatever is nearly €6-7. Does show that cans in the offie have gone up stupid prices though €2.76 average

Maphisto

Three pints is a bit ridiculous. Most people I know are fine after three - a little mellow is all.

They might as well come out and say that all alcohol consumption is bad, maybe that's their point. I don't think I've ever had just one.

AnonoBoy

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Does show that cans in the offie have gone up stupid prices though €2.76 average

I don't believe that.

It says in the article that 2.76 euro is the price for one standard drink at home.

One standard drink is approx 284ml of beer is it not?

Tardful Slakerly II

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

At this stage I honestly regard all this stuff as propaganda.

I'm not interested in getting into any kind of heated discussion but the effects of alcohol on health are well documented and easily researched, so you can look for yourself at the facts rather than call propaganda. I happen to think a lot of things are propaganda but not this so much.

It's an arbitrary figure given that is going to be different for everyone in reality, but it is addressing rightly that society accepts damaging levels of use. A lot of people aren't responsible drinkers, or don't know that they're giving themselves adverse effects.

If the culture of heavy drinking wasn't so accepted there wouldn't be a need for this kind of thing tbh. A person can do whatever they want to themselves, all the more so when they're aware of what's a safe amount and what's pushing it.

folan

it defined what a binge was. how did it correlate a binge as defined here to harmful effects?

Why does stuff like this annoy people so much it the same with any survey that says cannabis is harmful, brings out a load of cranky annoyed posters. What about a little upfront honesty instead of justifying your drinking]lying to your self ... if you want to live for the weekend/spend every Friday drinking 15 pints spending Saturday in a funk and Sunday afternoons in the pub, think a bank holiday is chance to drink more and believe because you are holding down a job you are grand, go for it but don't fool your self.

TimeToShine

darkpagandeath wrote: »

I love the average price to is that just a pint €4.58 ? And that's not a pint near me. Spirit with orange or whatever is nearly €6-7. Does show that cans in the offie have gone up stupid prices though €2.76 average

They might mean a standard unit which is half a pint.

TimeToShine

mariaalice wrote: »

Why does stuff like this annoy people so much it the same with any survey that says cannabis is harmful, brings out a load of cranky annoyed posters. What about a little upfront honesty instead of justifying your drinking]lying to your self ... if you want to live for the weekend/spend every Friday drinking 15 pints spending Saturday in a funk and Sunday afternoons in the pub, think a bank holiday is chance to drink more and believe because you are holding down a job you are grand, go for it but don't fool your self.

I think you are more annoyed about this than anyone else here.

Banjo String

Those figures were compiled by the VFI I presume? (I heard something ref offie price increases to tackle at home drinking on newstalk this am)

****. 3 pints. Jesus, sure I've spilt more on a decent session.

darkpagandeath

Banjo String wrote: »

Those figures were compiled by the VFI I presume? (I heard something ref offie price increases to tackle at home drinking.

****. 3 pints. Jesus, sure I've spilt more on a decent session.

Already stupidly expensive for the fizzy pop larger in my local offie €2.42 ish for a can of Carlsberg. Stupidly high mark-ups on this stuff considering it’s ridiculously cheap to produce and mostly marketing.

SEPT 23 1989

A serious drink binge would be a few days not a few pints

someone needs to challenge these idiots

darkpagandeath

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

A serious drink binge would be a few days not a few pints

someone needs to challenge these idiots

Exactly RTE news was saying 1 million problem drinkers...

_Kaiser_

Hmmm...

Irony:

- Thread talking about excessive consumption of alcohol: universal Boardsie outrage!

- Thread talking about excessive consumption of fizzy drinks: Tax it!! Think of the children!!

Snickers Man

Remember the way the Brits used to tell jokes about the Irish being thick? And then stopped?

Well if they get to read any of the ****e put out by these Health Research Board dimwits they'll start with them again, and with justification.

Here's a quote from the RTE news story

the population of drinkers spent over €50.6m on alcohol in the week prior to the study ......
It found that the self-reported average price of a standard drink is highest in hotels or restaurants at €4.58 and lowest at home or in someone else's home at €2.76.

OK. Let's do some sums here to put some context on these figures. The Irish Republic's population is 4.8 million. According to these figures 21.4% are under 14 and 12% are aged between 15 and 24. Let's say for the sake of argument that a total of 75 per cent of the population is over 18, ie of legal drinking age.

That means that 3.6 million people spend 50.6million euros or 14 euro a week each on booze.

In terms of units, even if we spent all of it on the cheap, stay-at-home variety and never went out that means we drink a total of 14/2.76 units, ie FIVE UNITS A WEEK.

What's a unit? Answer here.

Two and a half pints a WEEK!!!!! And that's without going out. If you went to a swanky hotel or restaurant, according to teh survey's own figures, you'd be having three units A WEEK. That's one and a half pints or three small glasses of wine.

Clearly overall consumption is not our problem. It's the manner in which we do it. And despite having the most expensive booze in Europe these arse brains can only think to make it more expensive. Because clearly that works!!!!

I despair.

The point is if you are happy with your drinking why get annoyed with the survey.

Nemeses

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Exactly RTE news was saying 1 million problem drinkers...

There would certainly be a problem since offy's close at 10pm..

darkpagandeath

mariaalice wrote: »

The point is if you are happy with your drinking why get annoyed with the survey.

Because they want to use crap like this as an excuse to tax it more....:mad:

wexie

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Exactly RTE news was saying 1 million problem drinkers...

.....1 million?

so that's about 1 of every 2 or so (maybe 3) adults in the country?
I call bull****.....

Tarzana

punisher5112 wrote: »

Its the ones drinking everyday that are damaging their health that is crazy talk they are on about.

Drinking a lot everyday? yes.

But binging once or twice a week would be far worse for you than having one or two drinks every evening.

darkpagandeath

wexie wrote: »

.....1 million?

so that's about 1 of every 2 or so (maybe 3) adults in the country?
I call bull****.....

Think their going by the 3 pints your a problem drinker

wexie

Snickers Man wrote: »

arse brains

he said arse!!! huh huh huh

http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/beavis-and-butt-head.jpg

jebuz

Binge drinking has been normalised in this country to the extent that 3 pints is considered nowhere near a binge, based on some of the replies here anyway.

But think about it, 3 pints is just over 1700ml of beer, that's quite a lot, the equivalent of 5 cans of coke in fact. If somebody drank 5 cans of coke in one sitting, would you not call it a binge? We continue putting our fingers in our ears and drinking ourselves to oblivion most weekends, but sure everyone's doing it, it's right craic let's laugh it off. These figures are scary but you don't even need figures, just look at any town on a Saturday night and you'll see the problem is as bad as ever.

c_man

I had three cans while watching the World Cup last night. Do I have to go to AA now?

darkpagandeath

jebuz wrote: »

Binge drinking has been normalised in this country to the extent that 3 pints is considered nowhere near a binge, based on some of the replies here anyway.

But think about it, 3 pints is just over 1700ml of beer, that's quite a lot, the equivalent of 5 cans of coke in fact. If somebody drank 5 cans of coke in one sitting, would you not call it a binge? We continue putting our fingers in our ears and drinking ourselves to oblivion most weekends, but sure everyone's doing it, it's right craic let's laugh it off. These figures are scary but you don't even need figures, just look at any town on a Saturday night and you'll see the problem is as bad as ever.

Please show the rest of us Another EU country that would consider this binge drinking.

LOL, 1 in 14 are dependent, good luck.

Kaiser2000

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Hmmm...

Irony:

- Thread talking about excessive consumption of alcohol: universal Boardsie outrage!

- Thread talking about excessive consumption of fizzy drinks: Tax it!! Think of the children!!

Most on the thread about taxing any fizzy drinks (not excessive consumption) seemed to be against it. But hey, why let reality get in the way of the narrative you have running in your head.

snaphook

Alcohol, the only drug in the world you have to justify saying no to.

FURET

Ireland is drink-sodden to the extent that what seems like a big majority are completely inured to how alcohol-dependent they really are. So many Irish people cannot conceive of a holiday or a weekend without multiple pints. I suppose you have to be on the outside looking in to really see it. But there is a massive sickening dependency on alcohol in this country. Alcohol and watching sport + alcohol - that's a big slice of the pie-chart of Irish social life right there.

FURET

FURET wrote: »

Ireland is drink-sodden to the extent that what seems like a big majority are completely inured to how alcohol-dependent they really are. So many Irish people cannot conceive of a holiday or a weekend without multiple pints. I suppose you have to be on the outside looking in to really see it. But there is a massive sickening dependency on alcohol in this country. Alcohol and watching sport + alcohol - that's a big slice of the pie-chart of Irish social life right there.

Looking at my middle-aged neighbours taking out their recycling now and then I don't think the social/going-out/pre-drinking youngsters stuff contributes as much as people let on.

darkpagandeath

FURET wrote: »

Ireland is drink-sodden to the extent that what seems like a big majority are completely inured to how alcohol-dependent they really are. So many Irish people cannot conceive of a holiday or a weekend without multiple pints. I suppose you have to be on the outside looking in to really see it. But there is a massive sickening dependency on alcohol in this country. Alcohol and watching sport + alcohol - that's a big slice of the pie-chart of Irish social life right there.

Sorry nope, Change Ireland to the world in that statement then you might get away with it. Your just pandering to a stereo type some people drinks to excess in every country we are not alone or unique. we have no higher level than EU average. Yet we are the 2nd most expensive to buy drink in.

Tardful Slakerly II

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Sorry nope, Change Ireland to the world in that statement then you might get away with it. Your just pandering to a stereo type some people drinks to excess in every country we are not alone or unique. we have no higher level than EU average. Yet we are the 2nd most expensive to buy drink in.

If it applies to the world then it applies to Ireland, and this is an Irish forum discussing Ireland in particular, so you don't have a point there?


The high tax on alcohol had nothing to do with drinking culture, except that we're getting gouged, but there's nothing new there.

darkpagandeath

Tardful Slakerly II wrote: »

If it applies to the world then it applies to Ireland, and this is an Irish forum discussing Ireland in particular, so you don't have a point there?


The high tax on alcohol had nothing to do with drinking culture, except that we're getting gouged, but there's nothing new there.

So Ireland does or does not drink more than anyone else now ?

Tardful Slakerly II

darkpagandeath wrote: »

So Ireland does or does not drink more than anyone else now ?

The issue is health itself, not what country is more healthy by comparison. That doesn't have anything to do with anything. It's erroneous, and side steps the actual issues around alcohol completely.

Snickers Man

jebuz wrote: »

But think about it, 3 pints is just over 1700ml of beer, that's quite a lot,

In a week??????

jebuz wrote: »

These figures are scary but you don't even need figures, just look at any town on a Saturday night and you'll see the problem is as bad as ever.

Yes it is. We have a problem. It's what we're trying to do about it that's nuts. How does that saw go about the definition of insanity being doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

That's what we're doing. These chumps haven't a clue how to address the problem. I don't think they want to. They want to blow themselves up with their own importance and then release the hot air all over the rest of us. If we complain about the flatulence, they say we are "in the pay of the drinks industry"

The figures that these guys highlight do NOTHING to strengthen their case for greater restrictions, higher prices, less frequent availability.

We already have the most expensive alcohol in Europe, according to Eurostat. We don't have an overconsumption problem, as deduced by the very figures the HRB has put out to support their own position.

It averages out to a consumption rate of three pints A WEEK for every adult over the age of 18.

Clearly we don't drink too much; we drink too irresponsibly. We don't drink sensibly. We drink to get pissed. We don't stop at one or two. We don't do it EVERY night but when we do, we do it in a rush.

How do we get people to be a bit more sensible?

We won't do it by being deferential to these self-important prats in the health industry.

Have we learned nothing from the unworthy deference we used to pay to the religious orders?

We'll do it because we want to. Now, how to encourage people rather than restrict them? How to dangle the carrot instead of wave the stick? That's the problem.

jebuz

Snickers Man wrote: »

In a week??????

Obviously not Read post again, I'm talking about one sitting

jebuz

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Please show the rest of us Another EU country that would consider this binge drinking.

What does it matter what another country considers binging? We're talking about Ireland. The fact is that drinking at least 1.7 litres of tea, beer, coke or whatever in one sitting is excessive, and scarily, that's the lower end of excess in terms of beer. Just because it's beer and just because it's only 3 out of a probably 8-10 pints, doesn't make it not binging.

Nobodies saying it's not an issue in other countries, it definitely is. But I've been out in a few European cities and have never witnessed the embarrassing scenes we have now come to expect most weekends here. We have a serious problem and in my opinion and it stems from this culture of every single event and every single weekend revolving around alcohol. I was part of it up until a few years ago when I changed my habits. As far as I was concerned it was just the thing to do and never really questioned it, just went with it and laughed it off, hurray for the Irish and that's likely the mindset of the teenagers today, nothing's changing.

It's rare now but there are occasions where I'd drink at least 3 pints, usually a wedding or stag but at least I can call it a binge, because that's what it is. Anyone getting irritated by the fact it's called a binge should probably ask themselves why.

I had a few Swedish friends over this weekend, they were pretty appalled by the state of a local town at 1:30am last Saturday night, everyone falling around the place and fights breaking out left right and centre. They told me they never witness this when they go out on a weekend, they typically have a couple of bottles and go home and sit in a sauna or something else Swedish. Point is...what's the point again. There's a point there somewhere.

darkpagandeath

jebuz wrote: »

What does it matter what another country considers binging? We're talking about Ireland. The fact is that drinking at least 1.7 litres of tea, beer, coke or whatever in one sitting is excessive, and scarily, that's the lower end of excess in terms of beer. Just because it's beer and just because it's only 3 out of a probably 8-10 pints, doesn't make it not binging.

Nobodies saying it's not an issue in other countries, it definitely is. But I've been out in a few European cities and have never witnessed the embarrassing scenes we have now come to expect most weekends here. We have a serious problem and in my opinion and it stems from this culture of every single event and every single weekend revolving around alcohol. I was part of it up until a few years ago when I changed my habits. As far as I was concerned it was just the thing to do and never really questioned it, just went with it and laughed it off, hurray for the Irish and that's likely the mindset of the teenagers today, nothing's changing.

It's rare now but there are occasions where I'd drink at least 3 pints, usually a wedding or stag but at least I can call it a binge, because that's what it is. Anyone getting irritated by the fact it's called a binge should probably ask themselves why.

I had a few Swedish friends over this weekend, they were pretty appalled by the state of a local town at 1:30am last Saturday night, everyone falling around the place and fights breaking out left right and centre. They told me they never witness this when they go out on a weekend, they typically have a couple of bottles and go home and sit in a sauna or something else Swedish. Point is...what's the point again. There's a point there somewhere.

Other European cities don't close at stupid o'clock that's why you don't see the same stuff going on. It's a slow drift of drunken people not a mass closing of places releasing all their intoxicated clientele onto the street at once. Uk has the exact same issue. We have been shoved into this binge behaviour if you want to call it that by stupid o'clock closing times. No time to have a nice time out.