Overweight people should be given lower drinking limits, scientists have said, after research found alcohol does them more harm.
Current government advice says men and women should not drink more than 14 units a week, the equivalent of about six pints of beer or standard glasses of wine.
But researchers said the findings, from a study of 400,000 adults in Britain, should be used to cut limits for the two in three adults who are overweight or obese.
The thought that any of us actually listen to these limits. That they’re actually something that is adhered to.
It’s entirely true that some don’t drink, some do, but the number who do or don’t because of the 14 unit advice is zero.
Best solution is to ignore this nonsense. Have a drink and forget it.
All the overweight people that I know who drink, can drink way more than me who is at a normal weight.
Leaving aside the ongoing evil of these paternalistic bastards, I’d just love to see one of them try to tell a 20-stone builder that he can’t have a third pint.
I read such advice, compare it with other often conflicting advice, and relegate it to the same bucket as ’10 tips to improve cleaning your house’ and ‘ways to deal with moss in your lawn’, i.e. ‘useless knowledge’.
We generally no longer automatically accept the authoritative advice of ‘experts’ although they have not yet taken that on board. Obviously it’s *our* fault that *their* advice is ignored.
Given that the 21 units drink limit was made up with no apparent science to justify it, how on earth can we even take this seriously? Perhaps it’s time for us everyday peeps to come up with a way to nudge government. I’d call it AYOOYFM – Are You Out of Your effin Mind.
We should focus our efforts on applying drinking limits to people who have already proven that they ignore eating and exercise limits.
That sounds like an excellent use of time and resources.
Bill Werberniuk !
The late Bill Werberniuk !
If I have this right, there are people who are paid money to think up things which I ought to do. And it’s my money? What makes this right or acceptable, I’d like to know. If they are experts, let’s see just one good thing their expertise has achieved.
In 1979, the government advised men to drink no more than 56 units of alcohol a week. This was later reduced to 36 units, then 28 units and then 21 units, now 14. Therefore most of this advice is incorrect, if not all of it.
People who are ‘over weight’ don’t heed advice on diet and exercise but they will heed advice on alcohol consumption?
That’s the problem we inherited from closure of lunatic asylums and care in the community, those who normally would be lock-up get occupational therapy as experts and advisors and MPs.
Heed advice? The critters are suggesting it should be made mandatory… As usual..
Next step: Because anyone with a normal/low BMI can handle even less alcohol, their limit should be reduced even further. Because Health!
Bugger ye offe, and goeth piss in yer owne yarde!
David
My favourite acronym was ‘DILLIGAF’ (Do I look like I give a F^&k) which was used liberally by the warehousemen I worked with down in Southampton – all of whom used to drink well beyond 14 units in a single session
“People who are ‘over weight’ don’t heed advice on diet and exercise”: why should they? If you like to believe in observational data then you have to conclude that the ‘overweight’ outlive the ‘normal’, the ‘obese’, and the ‘underweight’.
You have to be really obese to expect as short a lifespan as the underweight.
My somewhat unscientific study found that Doctors drink more than most, which I suspect is proof of some economic theory or other. Or perhaps that Doctors also think this advise is nuts.
The idea that two out of three adults are overweight is horseshit.
As another commentator has pointed out, the original limit was 56 units — which is the only one supported by the evidence (rather than junk science, biased metastudies, or modelling. But I repeat myself).
DK
Reminiscent of the food pyramid our government decided to update under Bush and again under Obama. People weren’t following the original one to begin with. Six to eleven servings of grains a day? Are you fucking serious?
All of this stupid government advice is based on correlation, not causation. Scientists observe that people who do X live longer than those who do Y and fools then assume that if you take a person currently doing Y and make them do X then they too will live longer.
Advice (especially any which would have a big effect on people’s lives) should only be based on randomised controlled trials. But that’s a bit difficult in many cases as the trials would have to run for years. However, that’s not an excuse for giving unfounded advice – merely for accepting that we don’t have good evidence to give advice.