https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64311705

do cyclists have a drinking problem? Probably no more than golfers, fishermen, painters, cops, or teachers.

I can drink a case of non-alcoholic beer and be fine

An article in The New York Times just a few days ago claimed that all alcohol is bad for you. This may be so, but how bad is really unproven. Millions upon millions of people around the world drink. For drinkers, and I include myself in that group, drinking is pleasurable, relaxing, and fun to do with people. Wine and beer taste great for some, hard liquor is stimulating and satisfying for some. People like to drink. But in the U.S., where millions of people waddle around overweight from eating too much lousy food and where they line up at drive-thru windows so they don't have to exert themselves to get out of the car, there appears to be some kind of fixation on drinking. Research claims that drinking does this, does that, causes this, causes that. And it's not just drinking. Research condemns so many different kinds of foods that almost anything you eat has some deleterious effects on your health if you believe the claims. So, what to do? I think, at least for me, that it's best to live your life in such a way that brings contentment, satisfaction, and happiness. If that includes drinking, so be it. I'm in my seventies and drink regularly. I'm healthy and fit. All of my friends and acquaintances drink and are healthy and fit. A reasonable person who uses moderation in most things, and especially in those activities that might have some ill effects on health can live a long and healthy life. All this about what is good and not good is the stuff of the media. A lot of it is nonsense. I just saw an article in my local newspaper suggesting oatmeal for breakfast. Why? Why would the writer bother to suggest this? Not because she was interested in my health but because she needed some topic to write about, much like researchers need something to research. I use common sense (something I still believe in) to govern my life. That common sense tells me that I am doing fine in terms of health. So I live the way I deem appropriate. Cyclists get lots of exercise. They are for the most part healthy people. If they drink, good for them. Those who harm themselves through drinking probably know they have a problem. For the rest of, enjoy your cycling and, if you drink, enjoy that too.

I saw the article that the OP posted and thought about my cycling friends. One couple and their friend occasionally partake in a big group beer ride from one craft brewer to another, in a string, around town. The guy went over the (handle) bar during one of those, in traffic, and was lucky not to have been run over. I've been invited, but it isn't my thing. Having grown up with an alcoholic uncle and a dad who sometimes drank too much on the weekends, it's just something I do in extreme moderation. In a given year, I probably have less than 6 alcoholic drinks of any kind.

The article that made me think more was one that appeared recently relating various cancers to alcohol consumption.

My wife and I were joking about the Dry January" thing after seeing a medical reporter on TV saying how it made her skin look better and her let her sleep better. If this is the case, why not extend it all year?

Great deal of difference in amount of alcohol consumed between countries. Better to look at overall longevity in different countries which is more instructive than a single variable like alcohol consumption. The USA has had a decline in life expectancy along with increases in infant and maternal mortality, especially in the red states where it is twice as great.

Below are the top countries in the world with the high rate of alcohol use disorder in males:

• Russia (16.29%)
• Hungary (15.29%)
• Lithuania (13.35%)
• South Korea (13.10%)
• Latvia (11.54%)
• Belarus (11.43%)
• Estonia (11.09%)
• Niue (10.58%)
• Colombia (10.33%)
• Thailand (10.18%)

The U.S. isn't in the top ten, according to W.H.O.

What I like is the arrival of low alcohol and low carb beers that actually taste good.

Michelob Ultra Pure Gold 2.5g carbs 85 calories ABV 3.8% Amstel Light 5g carbs 95 calories ABV 3.5%

Beck’s Premier Light 3.9g carbs 6 calories ABV 2.3%

Corona Premier 2.6g 90 cal ABV 4.0% - very popular

Miller Lite Lager 3g 95 calories ABV 4.2%

Heinekin Light 6.8g 99 calories ABV 3.3%

Heineken 0.0 Alcohol free 16g carbs 69 calories

Budwiser Select 1.8g carbs 2.4% ABV 55 calories

Yeungling Light Lager 3.2g carbs 99 calories 4.0% ABV

The Heinekin Zero is tasty but has 16 grams of carb. The Budweiser 55 has only 1.8 grams and so I switched to it. Top rated at this time is Michelob Ultra Pure Gold. the beer companies have invested greatly in producing low carb low alcohol beers and with all the competition the results have been excellent.

The only reason I started riding 40 years ago was to burn off the beer calories I was accumulating in college!

We're still burning them off today!

Yup, all those professions have know drinking problems. They may just be the worst.

If anyone thinks cycling is bad, try AFL (Australian Rules) football...

But the thing for me is that when I drank, I always thought I was the type of person who would wake up at 5:00am to go for a bicycle ride. When I stopped drinking I actually became that person.

Becoming alcohol free may be the best thing that ever happened to me. Certainly to my riding, although quitting cigarettes didn't hurt either.

What I like is the micro brew boom in the last 20 years with all the great tasting, high alcohol IPAs! Back 45 years ago when I was in college my choices were Budweiser or Schlitz! No wonder we didn’t drink much after a ride! The beer SUCKED, but thanks to Sam Adams, Red Hook, Sierra Nevada, Lagunitis, and so many others we have a much better selection of great tasting beers available today!

“Beer is proof that the good Lord loves us and wants us to be happy!” Benjamin Franklin

"I would not put a thief in my mouth to steal my brains!" Mattie Ross, in Charles Portis's novel True Grit.

I agree that great strides have been made in making no-alcohol beer taste better. The popularity of more flavorful styles like IPAs and sours has helped in that regard.

Low-carb is played out, though. I've had some terrible beers from brewers who tried to cram too much "virtue" into one product.

One of my cycling mentors completed this event


while drinking his normal fifth of bourbon daily, plus plenty of Canadian beer. RIP Rudy.

Then there was the patron saint of cycling drunks, Freddy Maertens. Standard procedure at the starting line was to open a magnum of his sponsor's champagne, empty his water bottles, fill them with the good stuff, drink down what did not fit. Of course he drank quite a bit before starting line. Won 400 professional races that way, two worlds champs, gave Eddy Merckx problems. Still living.

Not every drunk is the same. Very diverse disease.

Sweet! Any reason to post 60 Cycles is a good on in my book.

Wasn't Crested Butte once described as a "drinking town with a skiing problem", or was it Aspen? Maybe it has become a "drinking town with a cycling problem".

I had a drinking problem after my ride today. My 'fridge with the beer died! Oh no! The horror! The humanity!

I guess I could pretend to be British and drink it warm.

I'm not a teetotaler, and I have no interest whatsoever in N/A beers. Having said that, some thoughts are better kept to oneself. N/A beers can be an incredibly helpful thing for some folks needing to cut back, and public disparagement of their consumption is dickish.

OldTryGuy, I'm glad you enjoyed your Bud Zero.

Sense ....................................... of .................................. humor

Even a Little Alcohol Can Harm Your Health

Recent research makes it clear that any amount of drinking can be detrimental. Here’s why you may want to cut down on your consumption beyond Dry January.


https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/13/w...h-effects.html

Can't say I've ever linked cycling with alcohol. Cycling has more of a "coffee & cake" issue where I live. There is a strong pub culture in the UK and that's where you find hordes of regular drinkers who have normalised beer bellies as an inevitable consequence of ageing. I would imagine the percentage of regular bike riders in our local pub is very small.

Teatotalers are as irksome as the folks who knock on your door at 8AM on a Saturday and want to enlighten you on their religion. Same mindset.

A common thing to do here in Nebrahoma is to ride out to a small well-run beer joint on Tuesdays to eat tacos and have a couple of 20 ounce fish bowls of beer before riding back (26 miles round trip). Over the late 2021 holidays I had a medical check up and was presented with "the numbers". Lets just say a huge long term switch was shut off. I made it through last year without drinking. Ive stopped eating sweets this year. I love cycling too much to die too soon. Winston Churchill once said "Ive taken a lot more out of alcohol than alcohols taken out of me"......... however booze has taken enough of this fat old mans health away.