CNN had an interesting article on Binge Drinking. The article discussed some findings in two studies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For 75% of adult binge drinkers, their drink of choice is beer. 17% choose hard liquor and only 9% chose wine. For binge drinking teenagers, hard liquor was the drink of choice.
A binge drinker was defined as a person who had 5 or more alcoholic drinks on at least one occasion in the last 30 days. About 15% of the U.S. population are considered binge drinkers and most are men.
I think that definition may be a bit too broad. Having five glasses of wine at a gourmet dinner or wine party certainly does not seem out of the ordinary or improper. Even five beers in one night does not seem too extreme. Maybe it needs to be more than just once a month, but multiple times.
Beer may be the drink of choice because it is inexpensive and readily available at almost all liquor stores. Hard liquor may be more popular for teenagers as they can more readily get their parent's hard liquor.
The studies do show that wine is certainly not a drink that is abused that often. There are still some that do abuse wine, but other drinks are certainly more dangerous.
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