Year Without Beer – 20% Complete

Mar 14, 2012 | Life

At day 74 of my alcohol free year, with 20% of 2012 done, I slept better on the flight to Brazil without a drink and shared 20 surprising facts about beer and booze.

So today is day 74 of my year without beer, which also means 20% of 2012 has already gone! Last night I had a nice healthy snack in Wagamama at Heathrow Terminal 5 (including their delicious “Raw Juice”) before heading out to Brazil. As expected I slept just as well without booze and if anything feel a bit more with it this morning than the previous 12 hour flights where I’ve had a drink or 2 (or 3…) to help me sleep. To celebrate reaching the 20% mark I thought I would share 20 facts about beer and alcohol. Please note that all of these facts are completely true – they must be as I found them on the internet

The Top 3 countries in the World in per capita beer consumption are the Czech Republic, Germany, and Ireland.
Alcohol consumption has nearly doubled since the 1950s
Two pints of lager has as many calories as one steak pie.
About ten million people in England drink above the guidelines
Alcohol is estimated to be responsible for 33,000 deaths in the UK each year.
The UK alcohol industry directly employs more than 650,000 people in the production and retailing of alcohol and supports a further 1.1 million jobs in the wider economy.
Alcohol is a safety hazard; In the US it is involved in 66% of fatal accidents, 53% of fire deaths, 36% of pedestrian accidents, 22% of home accidents, 45% of drownings, 50% of skiing accidents, more admissions to mental hospitals than any other cause, 50% of all traffic accidents (killing 25,000 and seriously injuring 1,000,000 annually), and is the #1 killer of people 25 and under (the #3 killer in America for all ages).
The strongest beer in the world comes from a German brewer named To Georg Tscheuschner. He claims his Schorschbrau Schorsch Bock 43 is 43% ABV which is stronger than most distilled spirits. It sells for over 100 Euros per bottle and it most likely is also the most disgusting tasting beer on the planet.
Wine drinkers are less likely to get cancer than those who drink beer or spirits. A substance found in grapes, called resveratol, is thought to inhibit cancer.
Every day, more than 700,000 people in the U.S. receive treatment for alcoholism.
Alcohol has been widely consumed since prehistoric times by people around the world.
A popular drink in Cambodia is a Tarantula Brandy – made from rice liquor and dead tarantulas.
UK consumer expenditure on alcoholic drinks is about £40.7 billion per year.
It is estimated that 2.6 million children in the UK are living with parents who are drinking hazardously and 705,000 are living with dependent drinkers.
Alcohol has been shown to offer protection against mouth ulcers. In a study involving 447 people, aged between 15-79, alcohol seemed to stop mouth ulcers from developing.
Parental alcohol misuse has been identified as a factor in over 50% of child protection cases.
Non-alcoholic beers average about 94 percent less alcohol and 58 percent fewer calories then regular beer.
In the US, alcohol is associated with most crime; it is involved in 70% of all murders, 41% of assaults, 50% of rapes, 60% of sex crimes against children, 56% of fights and assaults in homes, 37% of suicides and 55% of all arrests.
People who drink between seven and 21 units of spirits a week (as opposed to wine) double their likelihood of getting cancer of the digestive tract compared to teetotallers.
The number of UK 11 to 15-year-olds drinking has not increased, but the amount of alcohol they consume has doubled between 1990 and 2000.