3.31.2007

High Five!


I was all set to congratulate myself on my first Friday night out in a long time in which I did not binge drink. It turns out my antiquated definition of 5 drinks is no longer the requirement for binging though. Here's what I've learned:

In the past, ‘binge drinking’ was often used to refer to an extended period of time, usually two days or more, during which a person repeatedly drank to intoxication, giving up usual activities and obligations.

In common usage, binge drinking is now usually used to refer to heavy drinking over an evening or similar time span - sometimes also referred to as heavy episodic drinking. Binge drinking is often associated with drinking with the intention of becoming intoxicated and, sometimes, with drinking in large groups. link


Those are fairly different definitions. Luckily I also found this:

There is no consistency among formal and quantitative definitions of binge drinking. The epidemiological research literature shows a broad range of definitions of binge drinking.

* 4+ drinks per occasion for women / 5+ drinks per occasion for men (US)
* 5+ drinks per occasion on at least one in last 30 days (US)
* Blood alcohol concentration raised to 0.08g/ml or above (US/ NIAAA)
* 1/2 bottle of spirits or 2 bottles of wine on the same occasion (Sweden)
* 6+ bottles of beer per session (Finland)
* 8 drinks within the same day (Canada) link


So I'm going to go back to my original conclusion. I (sort of) win.

1 comment:

Alex said...

Whitdawg, I don't consider it binge drinking on your part until you're doing snow angels on the carpet.