Found myself cutting back, too. I drink beer and usually have 1-2 at a time - any more and the flavors just get muddled. It's water, tea, coffee for me most of the time (added benefit of polyphenols, antioxidants for those brewed drinks). If I drank more, I would be too worried about handicapping my intellect.
There was a pretty good Kurzgesagt video posted earlier today on alcohol in general: https://youtu.be/aOwmt39L2IQ
The shift in perception of alcohol is certainly a good sign. Even outside of the health benefits, a night out at the bar is expensive now (at least on the East Coast) and honestly speaking other drugs are simply more cost-effective. I still have the occasional cocktail when going out with friends but now that I'm focused more on my overall fitness I find less of a reason to drink now. Still love the vibe of bars and pubs though.
Anecdotally knowing that club drugs like ketamine and 2c-b are gaining popularity, I wonder whether young people may be turning onto substances like those now or if in general Gen-Z prefers to abstain entirely.
I really like the trend. It is getting more acceptable to not drink.
I'm a party drinker, but whenever I see someone who does not drink he gets bombarded with "why not?" "You just did not have the right kind of beer yet" "just one?" and that is incredible sad.
Sadly social gatherings such as "meetups with friends" and "attendance at parties" is also dropping :( Kurzgesagt just had a video about alcohol and the social aspect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOwmt39L2IQ
Edit: Oh, and the trend for non-alcohol wine and beer is also a big plus.
Such a sad development, Young people need to drink more and socialize. No wonder the virginity rates are skyrocketing. You don't get into situations by getting stoned at home.
Sure it is bad for your body but when used in moderation the benefits are much much more than that risk. What a scam the weed culture is. Maybe we should ban it again together with the social media to save the birth rates and the society in general.
I think what will happen in the future is that the people that drink, will be drinking way more; while the people that rarely drink, will more rarely drink.
Nightlife customer patronage is way down post-pandemic, to the point where some very famous bars in Chicago (Twisted Spoke, Violet Hour) have shut down. To the extent nightlife drinking was a major component of US alcohol consumption, that may explain much of the drop.
A good chunk of my “fun and memorable nights” involved going out for a drink with friends/meeting new people at the bar. It’s very good if the younger generation is consuming less alcohol, but unless they’re replacing the social-aspect of it with something similar, I pity them. Unfortunately, looking at the data, it shows that people are just lonelier and hang out in social circles even less.
Obviously there are problems with over-consumption, and addiction. However, what is life, if not a large collection of your memories?
I'd be curious to see a breakdown of this data by location/market and with sales data instead of a poll. I have a friend who works in the alcohol distribution industry and he's refuted these kinds of claims multiple times, but he also lives in a midwest state where there's not much to do but eat and drink so perhaps it's all relative.
I recently had a cardiologist wag her finger at me and tell me that recent data pretty much demonstrates that there really isn't any healthy amount of alcohol to consume.
20 years ago, when "1 drink a day is healthiest" was all over the news, I said cheers and picked up the habit. It's kind of hard to break, considering that I really, really enjoy the flavor of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol, as a solvent, allows for flavor profiles that just water don't allow.
This is not a direct response to this article, but related to the topic of not drinking. I'm usually a follower of the latest data and such but I am highly skeptical of all the recent news about how drinking isn't safe in any quantity.
The latest data can be wrong. No different than how there was a period of time where UV light was considered this evil to avoid, and now we know it's actually pretty critical to get sunlight in moderation (and completely avoiding UV causes its own issues). This seems to be a problem with US health science where they will find something bad like partially hydrogenated fats (a terrible man made substance), and then go on to claim "fats are bad" (this is back in the 90s ish). The health system just ignored the long history of diets that were relatively high in fats (actual good natural fats), and tried to use "data". Ultimately data is only as good as our ability to measure, which is limited with something like the human body. That overcorrection has since come back to a more reasonable middle point but still has some issues.
It's undisputed that drinking a lot of alcohol is bad for you, but I don't see clear data for the grey area. If I fed a rat a whole bunch of vinegar day after day in large quantities it would get health problems, yet drinking a bit of apple cider vinegar, salt and vinegar chips, etc. are all fine, likely beneficial (pickled vegetables are good for you).
I'm not saying that there's any proof that alcohol is beneficial yet, but the lack of clear data for that grey area of risk is interesting. In Japan for example it's believed that drinking sake in moderate quantities has health benefits.
I guess going back to the sunlight analogy, it's hard to believe that a substance that has been around as long as alcohol has could be so toxic that occasional consumption has any meaningful negative effect.
> No different than how there was a period of time where UV light was considered this evil to avoid, and now we know it's actually pretty critical to get sunlight in moderation (and completely avoiding UV causes its own issues).
The real issue isn’t that we “didn’t know” sunlight has benefits, we’ve known that for ages. Just as we know too much sun has downsides. The problem is that people can’t (or won’t) tailor advice to their own context. What counts as “moderation” in one place looks very different in another.
That’s why I’m healthy and look a decade younger than my age, while my younger sister already looks older than me and has had five skin cancers cut out. Where I live, 5–10 minutes of sun a day is plenty. Where you live, you might need hours.
So “avoid the sun” means radically different things depending on where you are.
I haven't had anything alcoholic in nearly two decades. Even when I was drinking it never got me any closer to getting laid. I quit because only stupid shit happened when I was drunk or around drunk friends. If anything nicotine acts as a superior social lubricant. These days I just drop acid, drink espresso, and consume the occasional nicotine pouch. Have never missed alcohol one bit.
It's because GenZ is addicted to nicotine and millennials are all using legal weed. We've just replaced one substance with some others, rather than started abstaining.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 59.0 ms ] thread[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/611714/marijuana-use-dur...
The shift in perception of alcohol is certainly a good sign. Even outside of the health benefits, a night out at the bar is expensive now (at least on the East Coast) and honestly speaking other drugs are simply more cost-effective. I still have the occasional cocktail when going out with friends but now that I'm focused more on my overall fitness I find less of a reason to drink now. Still love the vibe of bars and pubs though.
Anecdotally knowing that club drugs like ketamine and 2c-b are gaining popularity, I wonder whether young people may be turning onto substances like those now or if in general Gen-Z prefers to abstain entirely.
I'm a party drinker, but whenever I see someone who does not drink he gets bombarded with "why not?" "You just did not have the right kind of beer yet" "just one?" and that is incredible sad.
Sadly social gatherings such as "meetups with friends" and "attendance at parties" is also dropping :( Kurzgesagt just had a video about alcohol and the social aspect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOwmt39L2IQ
Edit: Oh, and the trend for non-alcohol wine and beer is also a big plus.
Sure it is bad for your body but when used in moderation the benefits are much much more than that risk. What a scam the weed culture is. Maybe we should ban it again together with the social media to save the birth rates and the society in general.
Obviously there are problems with over-consumption, and addiction. However, what is life, if not a large collection of your memories?
20 years ago, when "1 drink a day is healthiest" was all over the news, I said cheers and picked up the habit. It's kind of hard to break, considering that I really, really enjoy the flavor of alcoholic beverages. Alcohol, as a solvent, allows for flavor profiles that just water don't allow.
The latest data can be wrong. No different than how there was a period of time where UV light was considered this evil to avoid, and now we know it's actually pretty critical to get sunlight in moderation (and completely avoiding UV causes its own issues). This seems to be a problem with US health science where they will find something bad like partially hydrogenated fats (a terrible man made substance), and then go on to claim "fats are bad" (this is back in the 90s ish). The health system just ignored the long history of diets that were relatively high in fats (actual good natural fats), and tried to use "data". Ultimately data is only as good as our ability to measure, which is limited with something like the human body. That overcorrection has since come back to a more reasonable middle point but still has some issues.
It's undisputed that drinking a lot of alcohol is bad for you, but I don't see clear data for the grey area. If I fed a rat a whole bunch of vinegar day after day in large quantities it would get health problems, yet drinking a bit of apple cider vinegar, salt and vinegar chips, etc. are all fine, likely beneficial (pickled vegetables are good for you).
I'm not saying that there's any proof that alcohol is beneficial yet, but the lack of clear data for that grey area of risk is interesting. In Japan for example it's believed that drinking sake in moderate quantities has health benefits.
I guess going back to the sunlight analogy, it's hard to believe that a substance that has been around as long as alcohol has could be so toxic that occasional consumption has any meaningful negative effect.
The real issue isn’t that we “didn’t know” sunlight has benefits, we’ve known that for ages. Just as we know too much sun has downsides. The problem is that people can’t (or won’t) tailor advice to their own context. What counts as “moderation” in one place looks very different in another.
That’s why I’m healthy and look a decade younger than my age, while my younger sister already looks older than me and has had five skin cancers cut out. Where I live, 5–10 minutes of sun a day is plenty. Where you live, you might need hours.
So “avoid the sun” means radically different things depending on where you are.
That sort of thing makes a difference as the knowledge percolates through society.