We drink lots of beer, so what?

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