A recent research has showed that Vietnam is the top beer
drinker in South East Asian. It illustrated that in the year 2011, Vietnam
consumed nearly 2.6 billion liters of beer. Averagely, each of us drank nearly
30 liters. Lots of people have
complained we are drinking too much beer. They even blame our beer consumption
for the recent economic downturn. But if beer is that bad, why don’t we ban it?
It is true that according to a research from A SINGLE
company, Vietnamese last year consumed the total amount of nearly 2.6 billion
liters of beer. And it is also true that Vietnam is the top drinker in the
region. Even if we calculate the consumption per capita, Vietnamese is still
the champion. However, if we look father than our small pot, we will find that
Vietnam ranks 41th in the list of countries by beer consumption per capita of
the world. Who ranks first? Czech Republic. Second? Germany. Austria is the
third. Unless I am not so wrong, Germany is among the richest countries in the
world and it also has the strongest economy in this difficult period. It looks
like that now we have evidence for the good effect of beer. The fact is that
beer has nothing to do with the ups and downs of an economy. The strongest
country does not stand last in the list, and the weakest one does not top
either. Therefore, it would be unwise to state that our difficult economic
situation results from our drinking habit.
Imagine a scenario when everyone in the world starts to
reduce drinking beer. The total consumption will be decreased. However there
will always be a top consumer. No matter how much we try to be better and
better, there always exist a champion and a loser. Therefore, in this case, it is
not a good idea to view things from a relative perspective. Instead, we should
consider the absolute number and reckon whether 2.594 billion liters of beer is
too much. The population of Vietnam is around 87 million. Provided that only
the population from 18 to 65 drinks beer, it would make approximately 60 million.
And it is true that women drink less than men, thus, the total adjusted figure
is about 50 million. Dividing the total amount of beer consumption with that
number, we will have 52 liter per capita. It would make one liter a week, which
means 3 bottles of beer. We have 3 meals a day, 21 meals a week. And we drink
only 3 bottles a week.
Is 3 bottles of beer a week a little bit too much? It
depends. But as a man in the age from 18 to 65, I myself find 3 bottles just
fine. But one thing is sure and you can check it on Google: Doctors around the
world recommend drinking a little beer every day because it does more good than
harm.
Food for thought.
Kz
