[Sca-cooks] Binge drinking

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Nov 21, 2005, at 9:43 PM, Radei Drchevich wrote:

> Statisrics are not a reliable measure of the actual intake.  Do you  
> have
> sources that indicate actual daily consumprion?

At the risk of sounding flippant, what did you think the statistics  
are based on? But seriously, there are probably multiple  books of  
household management, and recipe sources from specific households  
that give a fair idea both of how much ale (for example) was made in  
a given season, and how many people were in the household, which type  
of ale was for which household members, etc. It's not exact but we  
can get a fair idea.

Another possibility might be if there are records of allowances for  
workers in various occupations (not sure if this data is actually  
available, but I wouldn't be surprised), and I know the extent to  
which records exist for post-period sailors' ration of ale and rum,  
as well as wine.

> modern numbers for north america say the average person drinks 12  
> gallons
> of beer, 2 gallons of hard liquor, and 3 gallons of wine per year.  
> That
> is based on sales not actual person to person counts.

I'm sure the actual amount varies, but if you're positing the amount  
of beer that is purchased and never drunk, I imagine it's pretty  
insignificant. As for person-to-person counts, if you take them and  
average them together, you get an average, no? Which is what the stat  
claims to be... the only question is whether the actual data as  
gathered is accurate, and I can only ask, why would it be more likely  
to be inaccurate than accurate?

I mean, clearly there are people who drink huge amounts of beer,  
wine, and spirits, and some who drink less, and some who drink none,  
but these are still represented in the average sale numbers.

If medieval stats were gathered (based on annual sales) in the way  
they are today, there'd be a big window for inaccuracy in unrecorded,  
untaxed, or otherwise unregulated ale being made in homes, but I  
don't think the data for period consumption is gathered in the same way.

Adamantius

>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: "Terry Decker"
>   To: "Cooks within the SCA"
>   Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Binge drinking
>   Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:18:18 -0600
>
>
>   I don't know about the "binge." That suggests extended gaps
>   between bouts of intoxication. The general use of alcohol in
>   period sounds more like the steady imbibing of the alcoholic. One
>   of the studies I read calculates that the average person drank a
>   gallon of ale or beer per day or slightly under a pint an hour and
>   that it was a large part of the day's calorie count. Besides,
>   everyone knows binging is unhealthy while such drinking was
>   healthy, contributing to the "phlegmatic" personality.
>
>   Bear
>
>> Binge-drinking an age-old problem
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4455912.stm
>>
>> Johnnae
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Sca-cooks mailing list
>> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
>>
>
>   _______________________________________________
>   Sca-cooks mailing list
>   Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>   http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
>
> -- 
> ___________________________________________________
> Play 100s of games for FREE! http://games.mail.com/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks





"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04