Think of alcohol in Australian life and you probably think of beer: a “hard-earned thirst” and all that. Yet our national drinking taste is undergoing a dramatic change. Not only are we drinking less overall…
Alcohol: your arms can carry more than your liver can handle.
PA/David Cheskin
The evidence is in. Sales of alcohol in Scotland have decreased since the 2010 Alcohol Act was introduced. The act restricted the display and promotion of alcohol to a single area of any store. It banned…
‘Light’ wines are potentially big business if they can be successfully marketed to the diet-conscious consumer.
Steve Petric
Dieters can now have their wine and drink it, guilt-free and minus the hangover. That’s the promise of so-called “light” or low-alcohol, low-calorie wines. But these wines are not considerably lighter…
ANZAC Day once was a day to commemorate the sacrifices made by Australian soliders in war - but is it now being hijacked by companies with a profit motive?
Australian War Memorial
Australian brands are increasingly looking to exploit national holidays like ANZAC Day. Given soft retail conditions, such efforts are understandable. But is it welcome? Sure, there is no law against associating…
Over the past year, 23% of drinkers report not being able to stop drinking once they have started.
Image from shutterstock.com
Australians are increasingly drinking alcohol to get drunk but just one in five believe they drink too much. The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education’s annual alcohol poll, released today, found…
Nuts about beer: spraying tiny tastes of beer on men’s tongues was enough to trigger a brain response that made them want to drink more.
Flickr/Dinner Series
Liz Minchin, La Conversation Canada et Carley Tonoli, La Conversation Canada
Even the tiniest taste of beer can be enough to drive some men to want to drink more, a new study has found. While it sounds like the kind of study dreamt up at a backyard barbeque, US researchers have…
We all know that too much booze is bad for our health. Alcohol has been linked to 60 different medical conditions and almost 3,500 deaths a year in Australia, mostly from long-term alcohol abuse, accidents…
Booze won’t kill your brain cells but it can still harm your brain.
Image from shutterstock.com
Do you ever wake up with a raging hangover and picture the row of brain cells that you suspect have have started to decay? Or wonder whether that final glass of wine was too much for those tiny cells…
The most recent guidelines on appropriate alcohol consumption from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) are a hard sell to a hard-drinking public. And this is despite growing concerns…
Alcohol-related violence is rising while per capita consumption is falling.
Kirti Poddar
Generally speaking, if a population drinks more, then there are more heavy drinkers and more harm from alcohol (similarly if a population drinks less, there will be less harm). But this link now appears…
In decisions about alcohol policy, the effects on others, and not just on the drinker, need to be taken into account.
Gaby Av
Drinking a lot of alcohol is bad for the drinker’s health, both in the short and in the long run. But drinking often affects others adversely, too. This is well recognised for drink driving, and once the…
The increasing liberalisation of alcohol normalises drinking and consumption becomes enmeshed in the daily fabric of life.
Image from shutterstock.com
Most of us forget that alcohol is a drug so when asked to name drug-related problems, we tend to think of illegal drugs such as cannabis or heroin. But most of us drink, and drinking is an accompaniment…
Wine became popular in Australia in the 1960s, which led to the invention of the wine cask.
Flickr/Johnsyweb
Although most Australians would probably say we’ve always been a heavy-drinking nation, the consumption of alcohol has followed a roller coaster curve since European invasion. Alcohol consumption in Australia…
Professor, Director of Research and Statistical Support Service and Program Leader for Substance Use and Mental Health, Centre for Health Services Research, The University of Queensland