I would consider moderate drinking to be 4-5 drinks a week (drinking socially weekends). 2 drinks/night is practically getting drunk/tipsy every night. In what world is that moderate?
> 2 drinks/night is practically getting drunk/tipsy every night
Maybe if you hammer the 2 drinks and you weigh 100 pounds. But 2 drinks with a normal drinking pace will not get most people tipsy or remotely drunk.
I would guess 2 drinks per night is moderate in many countries. When I was in Italy I observed many drinking red wine in the morning at some cafes.
It does seem, however, that in Italy as an example "The older generation drinks four times as much as the younger generation on average." [1].
A lot of people feel a societal pressure to only drink when others are drinking - special occasions or nights out on the town. Or only after certain times like 5 PM. Personally I think that leads to more binge drinking. I'll drink without worrying if anyone else around me is. I'm an adult.
I think alcohol is a pretty horrible drug so I try to minimize my intake, but I know a fair few people who reach this without any behaviors that seem out of the ordinary. 6-8 drinks on a Friday night (this is about what I'd drink back when I used to go to bars), and then one or two drinks scattered across the rest of the evening: beer/wine with dinner or scorch afterwards or a mimosa or two with brunch. Especially when you take into account that a bottle of 6-8% beer is quite a bit more than a single standard drink.
That only involves "getting drunk" once a week, which I think a lot of people consider pretty moderate.
I usually drink a bottle of beer with dinner and I don't think this makes me any kind of heavy drinker. I'm probably doing more subtle long-term damage to my body from drinking 4-5 large cups of tea every day.
I think it can cause iron deficiency but I don't know exactly what type of tea that is and how much you'd have to drink. Drinking it with your meal is probably unwise if you have a known iron uptake problem.
People who drink 2 drinks a night are not dependent drinkers either.
This study is not about people dependent on alcohol. It's about people who drink at or slightly above the recommended limits (When the study started the limits were 21 drinks a week for men).
Thank you, but my comment wasn't about the study. My comment was a direct response to the parent's opinion about what is considered moderate drinking. An alcoholic would have a much more liberal judgment.
The consensus among my University classmates was that moderate drinking was drinking until you are moderately drunk (say around 6 drinks). It seems like they were poorly informed.
