Did anybody see the Panaroma about binge drinking last night?

[Orangelight23]

Real eye opener for me. Women in their 30s being diagnosed with liver disease. I must admit I have myself been drawn into wine culture and drinking wine to relax.

It's made me have a real think about my alcohol intake to be honest.

That's why glasses aren't a good measure, but there's usually around 9 units in a bottle, so 3 bottles a week is 27 units, about double the recommended maximum.

I'd have had that at one stage in my 20s but it naturally decreased as I got a bit older, and having kids reduced it again. I don't drink much now at all - I'd have thought that would be a fairly common pattern?

In terms of the next generation my 18 year old has no interest in drinking at all, not do the majority of his friends. The 16 year old is more interested, but by and large they seem less bothered about alcohol than we were at their age.

I think most people drink wine whilst relaxing on the sofa at home tbh. Beer and spirits tend to be associated with going out more so the attitude I think is a bit different to those. I have menieres disease and alcohol makes my tinnitus go bonkers so I don't drink but I can see how this could happen quite easily, esp with his stressed people are.
I agree re gen z though, for the most part they're much more included to do drugs when out, and habitually smoke weed to calm down rather than a glass of wine.

I'm baffled as to how supposedly intelligent people don't know this!( My sister didn't realise that alcohol contained calories until she was in her 30s. She lived on g and ts and though (because it was a clear, colourless fluid) that is was the equivalent of water.)

Alcohol is a poison and would never be legalised if it had been discovered recently. Don't people realise this? We're subjected to so much propaganda to normalise excessive drinking - and so many people seem to have fallen victim to it.

I'm old, and OK, students have always liked a drink - but I think the difference is that in my era we could only afford beer, cider or the very occasional bottle of awful wine. My children's generation went for spirits - much more lethal - and the evil alcopops and cocktails which basically are for people who don't like alcohol - they're sweet and sickly and encourage people to consume quantities of spirits without being aware of what they're doing to themselves.

Look at all those naff cards/coasters/tea-towels with 'Is it wine o'clock?' or similar cliches about women and wine.

Not drinking or drinking very rarely is one of the best things you can do for your mental health and body.

They are social drinkers who drink far more than they think they do. If you can drink a bottle of wine and still be functional, you drink far too much.

Especially in France. I wonder is liver disease much more widespread there?

I don't know anyone in my age group (30s) who drinks beer and spirits when they go out (women anyway) – it's wine wine wine. I do like a cider or a g&t in the summer though!

I am you.

Fit, strong, weight train regularly, run several times a week, healthy diet (I have one 'treat' day most weeks but even then I am talking home-made pizza/hummus rather than fried food or processed meat).
I drink too much, I know I do and I feel better when I don't, but if I didn't life would be a lot worse in lots of ways.
I don't get drunk (very rarely) I just go out, have a few and enjoy myself.

I will download this, thank you.

I work in a supermarket in a rural area, so know most of my regular customers. I serve many many people who are buying a ten pack of lager and a bottle of wine every day. The lager is for them, and the wine is 'for the wife'. Every single day. And then they go to work the next day, surely still over the limit, and back in that night for the same again. And there are far more of these than you might imagine.

Yes, my wine glasses at home are much smaller than you get in restaurants and bars these days, and you're not supposed to fill them up anyway. I hate drinking out of massive glasses, it's like drinking out of a bucket. Same with cocktails—our old-fashioned cocktail glasses are small, as they should be, because you're supposed to drink a cocktail quickly while it's ice cold. In bars the glasses are huge.

I haven't seen it but it's not hard to see how it happens, it's an easy habit to form and a hard one to break. Life is hectic and stressful, it's not always easy to find ways to unwind. About 10 years ago it was my main coping method because I was utterly miserable, eventually I forced myself to never drink if I'm overwhelmed or sad stuck to it. I still enjoy wine but my alcohol tolerance is low as I drink so infrequently now.

I'm your age group and most of my friends wouldn't touch beer or spirits unless out at a bar or pub etc. That's sort of my point, I feel like wine is a much more 'universal' drink, people, especially women, would happily drink it chilling in front of the TV, at a restaurant, bar etc. It's got a much higher % than beer though so I can see how easily it could go out of hand. I do wonder about the France comment though, I wonder if generally their slower pace and healthier diet 'offsets' the amount of wine they drink. I do agree with a pp on that, stress and a generally unhealthy life is far more damaging than even 2 bottles of wine a week.

My idea of binge drinking is very differnet to the true term, it seems!

i say i binge drink, 3-4 times a years i have blow outs with friends, drink anything and everything, drinking games, shots, 6-8 hours of drinking. That was my idea of binge drinking

i can go one month to the next without touching a drop the rest of the year.

It’s not just liver problems. Alcohol is a big risk for breast cancer too.

I fairly caned it in my twenties but as I’ve got older I can’t be arsed with a fuzzy head the next day. Got into a bad habit of a couple of glasses of wine too often during Covid but once the gym reopened I knocked that on the head. Dropped a stone pretty easily too.

Now I’ll have two glasses a week.

the difference in france is that mainly wine is drunk with food and slowly drinking with food lowers the concentration of alcohol in the blood, people tend to have a glass of water as well as a glass of wine with food. The culture is different though more wine is consumed in France than UK they drink less beer and spirits than the Uk

The effect on the brain and central nervous system isn't highlighted enough IMO, dementia, ataxia, possible links with other neurological conditions. These can happen in your 40s and 50s, not just in much later life.

Ahh this makes sense

Wait until you watch the one about nonstick frying pans and scented candles.

People say they don't get drunk, but all that means is they've built up a bit of a resistance. I know I've said exactly the same in the past.

Half a bottle of wine wouldn't make me feel drunk. It would make my elderly mum fall over. It's normal to feel drunk after a few drinks. It doesn't mean the alcohol isn't affecting you just because you don't feel drunk.

I found it quite upsetting and triggering when the woman who had a liver transplant said she started drinking heavily during lockdown.

I did the same thing due to being isolated and lonely during COVID. I am only realising now how dangerously close to the brink I was.

I do think one day we should have a full government apology about lockdown and acknowledged how many young people died or near died due to lockdown isolation

For sure – you can drink 20 units a week equally over 7 days, without the latest 'binge' definition of 6+ units in one go. So I suppose it depends what's the most harmful and if there's a difference over time.

It's a small number and very unlucky bearing in mind the amount of people that drink.

On the continent a small glass of wine with every meal would add up to mote than the 6 units per week. They appear to be fine. They did go on about even small amount each day. You'd think they would focus on the heavy bingers first

Whilst that’s true to an extent, it’s not just about ‘extend life by a few years’ That’s what people say who have their heads in the sand and don’t want to face up to reality that they are causing themselves more harm than that.
Too much alcohol can cause cancer, serious illness and even death far far earlier than ‘ a few extra years’
Think bladder cancer in your 50’s. Liver failure in your early 60’s. It may seem far far away if you are in your 20’s or 30’s but when you get to late 40’s it really starts to bite.

I don't know why everyone always assumes that France, or Southern Europe in general, is somehow immune from these issues, and has cheated the system by drinking loads of wine and not pickling livers. Rates of liver disease are almost the same in France as the UK.