Fun Drinking Facts
28 Drinking Facts Bet You Didn’t Know!
1. The word “toast,” meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient Rome, where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine.
2. Vikings used the skulls of their enemies as drinking vessels and cups.
3. Anyone under the age of 21 who takes out household trash containing even a single empty alcohol beverage container can be charged with illegal possession of alcohol in Missouri.
4. The early Church declared that alcohol was an inherently good gift of God to be used and enjoyed. While individuals might choose not to drink, to despise alcohol was heresy.
5. While there wasn’t any cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie to eat at the first Thanksgiving, there was beer, brandy, gin, and wine to drink.
6. During Prohibition, temperance activists hired a scholar to rewrite the Bible by removing all references to alcohol beverage.
7. Bourbon takes its name from Bourbon County in Kentucky, where it was first produced in 1789 by a Baptist minister.
8. The alcohol in drinks of either low alcohol content (below 15%) or high alcohol content (over 30%) tend to be absorbed into the body more slowly.
9. The moderate consumption of alcohol does not destroy brain cells. In fact it is often associated with improved cognitive (mental) functioning.
10. A glass of white or red wine, a bottle of beer, and a shot of whiskey or other distilled spirits all contain equivalent amounts of alcohol and are they same to a Breathalyzer. A standard drink is:
A 12-ounce bottle or can of regular beer
A 5-ounce glass of wine
A one and 1/2 ounce of 80 proof distilled spirits (either straight or in a mixed drink).
12. A “beer belly” is caused by eating too much food. No beer or other alcohol beverage is necessary.
13. The level of blood alcohol content (BAC) is what determines sobriety or intoxication. Remember that a standard drink of beer, wine, or spirits contain equivalent amounts of alcohol. Alcohol is alcohol and a drink is a drink
14. Only time can sober up a person…not black coffee, cold showers, exercise, or any other common “cures.” Alcohol leaves the body of virtually everyone at a constant rate of about .015 percent of blood alcohol content (BAC) per hour. Thus, a person with a BAC of .015 would be completely sober in an hour while a person with a BAC of ten times that (.15) would require 10 hours to become completely sober. This is true regardless of sex, age, weight, and similar factors
15. Scientific medical research does not support this old temperance scare tactic promoted by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Anti-Saloon League, the Prohibition Party, and similar groups.
16. Binge drinking is clinically and commonly viewed as a period of extended intoxication lasting at least several days during which time the ‘binger’ drops out of usual life activities. Few university students engage in such bingeing behavior. However, a number sometimes consume at least four drinks in day (or at least five for men). Although many of these young people may never even become intoxicated, they are branded as binge drinkers by some researchers. This practice deceptively inflates the number of apparent binge drinkers. In reality, the proportion of college students who drink continues to decline, as does the percentage of those who drink heavily
17. Extensive medical research studying hundreds of thousands of women from around the world fails to find scientific evidence that light drinking, much less a sip of alcohol by an expectant mother, can cause fetal alcohol syndrome. Of course, the very safest choice would be to abstain during the period of gestation.
18. Every person produces alcohol normally in the body 24 hours each and every day from birth until death. Therefore, we always have alcohol in our bodies.
19. Heavy alcohol use among people in the US 17 years of age or younger actually dropped by an amazing two-thirds (65.9 percent) between 1985 and 1997, according to federal government research. The proportion of young people who consumed any alcohol within the previous month dropped from 50% to 19% in about the same period. Other federally funded research also documents the continuing decline in both drinking and drinking abuse among young people. Similarly, alcohol-related traffic injuries and fatalities among young people continue to drop. Deaths associated with young drinking drivers aged 16 to 24 decreased almost half (47%) in a recent 15-year period.20.
20. The US isn’t even among the top ten alcohol consuming countries. Top 10 Alcohol Consuming Countries on per capita Basis Country / Consumption in Gallons of absolute or pure alcohol: At a consumption rate of only 1.74 per person, the US falls far down at 32nd on the list.
21. The US has the most strict youth drinking laws in the Western world, including the highest minimum drinking age in the entire world. And this is buttressed by a public policy of Zero Tolerance.
22. Hundreds of scientific research studies around the world have clearly demonstrated that alcohol advertising does not lead to increases in drinking abuse or drinking problems. Alcohol advertising continues because effective ads can increase a brand’s share of the total market.
23. There is no worm in tequila. It’s in mescal, a spirit beverage distilled from a different plant. And it’s not actually a worm, but a butterfly caterpillar (Hipopta Agavis) called a gurano.
24. People who can drink heavily without becoming intoxicated have probably developed a tolerance for alcohol, which can indicate the onset of dependency.
25. Some lives would be saved from accidents now caused by intoxication and from health problems caused by alcohol abuse. However, many other lives would be lost from increases in coronary heart disease. For example, estimates from 13 studies suggest that as many as 135,884 additional deaths would occur each year in the US from coronary heart disease alone because of abstinence.
26. Many non-alcoholics on occasion become intoxicated or drunk. However, if they are not addicted to alcohol, they are not alcoholic. Of course, intoxication is never completely safe or risk-free and should be avoided. It is better either to abstain or to drink in moderation. While consuming alcohol sensibly is associated with better health and longer life, the abuse of alcohol is associated with many undesirable health outcomes.
27. As a governmental alcohol agency has explained, “Alcohol no more causes alcoholism than sugar causes diabetes.” The agency points out that if alcohol caused alcoholism then all drinkers would be alcoholics. In fact, a belief common among members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is that people are born alcoholic and are not caused to be alcoholic by alcohol or anything in their experience. They argue that many people are born and die alcoholic without ever having had a sip of alcohol. Of course, a person can’t be a drinking or practicing alcoholic without alcohol.
28. According to Federal statistics, most students arrive at college with prior drinking experience and the proportion of drinkers doesn’t increase greatly during college.
PLEASE NOTE: This section was Reproduced by permission of Alcohol Information.
I would like to personally thank Dave Hanson for his generosity but even more so for his excellent educational site. I highly encourage you to visit it.