Binge drinking

Binge drinking is yet again in the news, with a new study showing that people in some northern towns will lose around 2 years of their life due to excessive alcohol consumption. ITV news has just done one of its usual simplistic reports on the issue (phrases like "a sea of alcohol" etc) and I've been shouting at the telly over the stupidity of it all. According to the Guardian, a binge drinking session for a woman would be anything more than one and a half pints, or three shots of spirits. Now can anyone honestly tell me that they head out for a night out aiming to drink no more than this? You could easily get through more than this in its wine equivalent over a civilised meal without getting drunk at all, and a couple of cocktails will also take you over, again without causing you to throw up in the street and assault a paramedic. The guidelines are so unrealistic that no-one's ever going to take them seriously - regardless of what the actual health research recommends, surely a better way forward would be to set a more realistic limit for people to aim for as a good starting point? A recommended limit that at least decreases anti-social behaviour would probably be higher and more achievable, even if it did still damage your health in some way. Telling people to never get drunk again in order to stop them dying at the age of 83 instead of 85 is just not going to work.

Rant over.