Thursday 8 November 2012

So You Thought You Were A Moderate Drinker, Huh?

If you want to truly imagine the paltry level of alcohol that prohibitionists consider acceptable, here it is from one of public health Australia's favourite blogs.
Of people aged 18 years and over, 19.5% of drinkers consumed more than two drinks per day and 44.7% consumed more than four standard drinks at least once in the past year.  These behaviours exceed the National Health and Medical Research Council’s lifetime risk guidelines and single occasion risk guidelines respectively.
The only surprising thing about those figures is how incredibly low they are.

According to the Australian government, a pint of Stella is the equivalent of 2.25 'standard drinks', so it is contrary to their guidelines for anyone to enjoy two pints at a wedding, Christmas, birthday party, barbecue or even the Melbourne Cup ... once a year!

This, apparently, is why minimum alcohol pricing is desperately necessary in Australia.

Please never be be fooled into thinking these people are sane or rational, will you? Because they aren't.


7 comments:

Curmudgeon said...

Yes, if you drink two pints of Stella or the equivalent on one day in the the whole year, you're a problem drinker. I suspect even maiden aunts might manage that on Christmas Day.

JonathanBagley said...

After watching Australian Come Dine with Me, I've got to admit the majority of Australians are complete piss artists. The amount they get through is incredible. I can't see Government measures having any effect for decades.

Bucko TheMoose said...

That's not even enough to get a sway on!

carlvphillips said...

Stunning. In a rational world, this would be a parody about what "public health" might say if you extrapolated their current claims to laughable extremes. Never mind the research that shows a pint a day is better than none, eh? Or is that "crikey"

nisakiman said...

You forget, DP, that in the parallel universe inhabited by the "Health Experts", there is NO safe level of alcohol consumption.

"...the majority of Australians are complete piss artists"


They most certainly were when I was resident there in the 70s. Pubs closed on a Sunday, and the great tradition was the "Sunday Barrel", where a bunch of guys would chip in on the Saturday and buy a keg of beer, which would usually be accompanied by a barbie on the Sunday. The pub supplying the keg would provide lines, coolers etc so the beer could be appreciated to the max. It was, simply, a regular Sunday piss-up. Two pints of Stella? Pah! Kindergarten. This was serious drinking.

Mark.S. said...

Anyone remember when Australians were fun, drinking friends (test matches aside!). Soon they will make make My great aunt look like Oliver Reed.

Alan Bates said...

You guys and gals are so out of date!

Once you reach 65 the units per day drop to 1.5 for men and 1 for women!!

So, as a man I am not "allowed" a pint of 4% beer - 2.3 units - and my wife (who is only 27) is never again to be allowed a small glass of red wine (100 ml of 13% is 1.3 units). And, no, that's counted per day so no weekly totting up and a few alcohol-free days.

"Recent evidence has shown that the upper safe limit for older men is 1.5 units of alcohol a day, the college said, compared to a current recommendation for men of not regularly drinking more than three to four units daily."
"For women over 65, the limits should be lowered from not regularly drinking more than two to three units a day to possibly to just one unit a day, according to Dr Tony Rao, a consultant in old age psychiatry and a member of the working group that drew up the report Our Invisible Addicts."

Try googling alcohol limits for elderly