A record low number of Americans are drinking, according to a new Gallup poll released this week. Just 54% of Americans said they consume alcohol at all.

Gallup has been tracking Americans’ drinking behavior since 1939, and their views of the health implications of drinking since 2001. For the first time, a majority of Americans – 53% – said that moderate drinking, defined as one or two drinks per day, is bad for your health.

  • Fondots@lemmy.world
    1·
    2 days ago

    National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 grams percent or above. This typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks, and when women consume 4 or more drinks, in about 2 hours.

    By that definition, most of my drinking probably wouldn’t count as a binge. I might, over the course of a day hanging around camp or whatever, have a dozen or so drinks, but that’s spread out over almost as many hours.

    I have seen other definitions that call any day you have more than 2 a binge, and by that definition, sure, I have an occasional binge, but I don’t know if I’m a fan of that definition, it feels like there’s too many variables with body weight and metabolism and such, and of course how quickly you’re drinking, there’s a big difference between a 300lb man killing a 6 pack over the course of a day and a 100lb woman pounding them one after another, so I like how the NIAAA definition ties it to BAC.