More drinks because we are fatter?

“Why Americans—Especially Women—Are Drinking More Alcohol” (TIME, 2017) was recently highlighted by a Facebook friend because of this passage:

Added stress is another factor that might drive anyone, regardless of their sex, to drink more. High-risk drinking was higher among minority groups, and the authors argue that wealth inequality between minorities and whites has widened during and after the 2008 recession, which may have led to “increased stress and demoralization.” Income and educational disparities, as well as “unemployment, residential segregation, discrimination, decreased access to health care, and increased stigma associated with drinking,” may also play a role, the authors write.

In other words, some Americans are so poor now that they have no choice but to spend gobs of money on beer, wine, and mixed drinks.

I wonder how much of the extra drinking could be accounted for by heavier weights. Americans today can be 50 lbs. heavier than their counterparts from the 1950s. A person with 50 lbs. of extra weight will need additional alcohol to feel the same effect, no?

6 thoughts on “More drinks because we are fatter?

  1. Off to celebrate National IPA day!

    This afternoon at the place I’ll be there will be a bunch of white guys hunched over their laptops enjoying a beer or two while getting some e-mail knocked out. There won’t be a woman or minority in the place. Craft beer is very male and very white.

  2. Conveying higher status is real important to the generation X serial divorcee. Nothing does it better than nightly photos of downing a few in an upscale bar on the old book of face. Millenials, however, are born again Amish.

  3. Add the factor that more fat requires requires more drink to make the opposite sex skinny again!

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