{"id":229,"date":"2023-12-15T09:33:50","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T09:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/?p=229"},"modified":"2023-12-15T09:33:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T09:33:51","slug":"is-the-uks-drinking-culture-as-bad-as-we-think-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/2023\/12\/15\/is-the-uks-drinking-culture-as-bad-as-we-think-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the UK’s drinking culture as bad as we think it is?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alcoholic drinks expert\/historian Jane Peyton, who currently runs the \u2018School of Booze<\/a>\u2019, said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cdespite tabloid newspaper reports, overall, Britons are not anti-social consumers of alcohol\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Picture of Jane Peyton, Founder of the ‘School of Booze’. Photo provided by Jane Peyton (used with permission)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA minority are at the weekends, but that should not taint the entire drinking culture of the UK\u201d, Peyton added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report conducted by \u2018Alcohol Change UK\u2019 on the UK\u2019s drinking behaviours also said: \u201cSince 2005, the overall amount of alcohol consumed in the UK, the proportion of people reporting drinking, and the amount drinkers report consuming have all fallen\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peyton explained that \u201cMany people in younger demographics today do not drink alcohol at all\u201d. They added: \u201cThe latter fact is definitely a worry for alcoholic drinks brand owners and the operators of licensed premises if their future market is shrinking\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, the UK was placed 24th<\/sup> on the CIA\u2019s alcohol consumption per capita list<\/a>, demonstrating that a considerable amount of countries were below Britain in terms of the average intake of alcohol consumed by each person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NHS held a survey in 2021<\/a> which stated: \u201c79% of participants reported that they had drunk alcohol in the last 12 months\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Aric Sigman, a health education lecturer, had a recent academic paper published \u2019the British Medical Journals\u2019 Archives of Disease in Childhood<\/em><\/a> which reads: \u201cAdolescent alcohol exposure may also lead to changes in gene expression, that could influence drinking behaviour in adulthood\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Picture of Dr Aric Sigman. Credit: Photo provided by Dr Aric Sigman (used with permission)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of parents in this country do give alcohol [to their children] at the ages of 14 and 15 and understandably it\u2019s not their fault, they genuinely think that it\u2019s better to teach them in a home environment how to drink responsibly,\u201d Sigman added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \u201cgateway\u201d into alcohol consumption facilitated by parents ultimately does harm children in the long term. Dr Sigman said that when younger brains are exposed to addictive substances such as alcohol, they are more likely to become addicted to it 30 years from now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, the British culture of allowing children to consume alcohol from a relatively young age, could be a significant reason for why the UK does have such a large drinking demographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sigman also stressed the importance of knowledge that the general public should have around the health risks accompanied by the consumption of alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdults need to be aware of the effects of alcohol, which most of them are not\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s a major cause of cancer, people don\u2019t seem to realise that alcohol is very carcinogenic\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An article<\/a> written by the Guardian\u2019s Health Editor, Andrew Gregory, stated: \u201cFigures based on YouGov surveys show 18.1% of adults in England were drinking at \u201cincreasing or higher risk\u201d in the three months to the end of October 2021, which equates to 8 million people\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Sigman also reflected on the differences between Britain\u2019s \u201cbinge drinking\u201d culture and Frances\u2019s \u201ctipple\u201d habits. He said that whilst Brits have higher tendencies to drink an excessive amount of alcohol in one-night, French people usually drink lower quantities during the day but at a higher frequency during the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe mortality rate is 26% higher in France than in England due to alcohol\u201d they said. \u201cThe anti-social behaviour isn\u2019t visible in France as it is in England, so we assume that they don\u2019t have a problem but it\u2019s just a different problem\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading\/listening. Please remember to follow the NUFC Pub Trips Instagram\/Twitter pages @nufcpubtrips<\/a> and @NufcPubTrips123<\/a> for more additional content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alcoholic drinks expert\/historian Jane Peyton, who currently runs the \u2018School of Booze\u2019, said \u201cdespite tabloid newspaper reports, overall, Britons are not anti-social consumers of alcohol\u201d. Picture of Jane Peyton, Founder of the ‘School of Booze’. Photo provided by Jane Peyton (used with permission) \u201cA minority are at the weekends, but that should not taint the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/adam-symes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}