Do western people drink alcohol as drinking water?

When I watch western movies, I saw people drinking alcohol (whiskey,tequila,vodka etc) to quench thirst.
Is that true in real life or it is just in the movie?
Drinking beer maybe can quench thirst because it contains 90-95% water.
Do they feel drunk after drinking spirit?

 

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Most spirit/liquor drinks contain >40% alcohol, will that not make you drunk?

 

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I'm not a fan of beer, but that can quench your thirst over say wine, or vodka. Alcohol can be dehydrating, which is largely why many people are hung over the following day after a night of drinking.

hangover - a group of unpleasant signs and symptoms that can develop after drinking too much alcohol.

Everyone's tolerance of alcohol is different - one person may be able to drink five beers and feel sober, while someone else might be feeling ''drunk'' after three beers. (or whatever alcohol they're drinking)

 

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Bond drinks martini.

 

I saw most cowboys movie, they drink alcohol especially whiskey, is that true?
How about wine? Will it quench thirst?
Will it make you drunk?

 

It's just in the movies. When people are thirsty they don't drink alcohol.

 

lol ^

Not an avid viewer of these films, but it's curious why cowboys in movies get themselves liquored up right before a duel.

 

One's tolerance (other than due to body weight) largely has to do with how much you drink over a period of time. Your body tries to preserve itself and tries to counteract any "poison". That's why a drug addict can take a dose that would kill most people. It would have killed the drug addict when they first started too. Their body is trying to counteract that dose as much as possible.

I rarely drink. Not for any moral reasons but other than the momentary feeling I just feel to lethargic the next day or get a headache. I used to think that if I drank a few glasses of wine I'd get a headache.

I had a girlfriend that liked to drink wine so I got to the point where I could drink a bottle just by myself and not feel bad the next day. That's because I built up to it over time. It wasn't because it was suddenly good for me. It was because my body was trying to protect me.

In moderation wine is good with food and I have wine sometimes if there is someone else around who is drinking wine. The whole toleration thing though is mainly among people who have been drinking for a long time.

 

Another reason for it in those days was the quality of the water. I'd rather drink a beer in Mexico rather than a glass of water out of the tap.

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Beer got 5,6% alcohol, can be bad to health also.

 

True. In addition to individual tolerance varying, women can in general tolerate less alcohol than men and people from East Asia tolerate it less well than Europeans.

A hangover is a symptom of undisciplined drinking of alcohol, arising as you say partly due to dehydration, but partly also to the byproducts of metabolism of some of the things in alcoholic drinks besides ethyl alcohol, notably other alcohols. That is said to be the reason why some types of alcohol are more liable to give you a headache than others. Ever since my first hangover, when I was 18, I have learned to drink a glass of water for every 2 beers or every two glasses of wine. I have very rarely had hangovers since - though a business trip to Russia involving prodigious amounts of vodka did give me a nasty one, once.

The S. European culture of drinking moderate amounts, always with food, greatly reduces the likelihood of both drunkenness and hangovers.

 

in older times the whisky as its called
modern name is moonshine
would not be as strong

strong liquor requires time and skill

it was probably closer to wine strength around 15%
clean drinking water in those days (when they were deliberately poisoning Indians drinking wells to kill women & children and entire villages) was very valuable

they would have had things like worms and all sorts of terrible illnesses
Sexually transmitted diseases and terrible infections
they were really dirty people
rarely bathed eat mostly meat
their immune system was terrible and most of them died by the age of about 40 years old

only the very rich lived to around 60

remember girls were married at age 15 & expected to have babies by 17 years old and be married off to someone
by the time the mother is 35 the children need to be breeding age "15"
as the mothers become grandmothers at age 35 and then die over the next 10 years of disease & illnesses & cancer etc
add on infant mortality and the 15 year old girl would need to have around 4 babies before she was 22 years old

that is probably why America has 21 year old adult age instead of more advanced countrys of age 18

as slavery became more institutionalized into modern society in the usa
that gave more time to white people to specialize more into distilling
that burgeoning of the white supremacist middle class drove a desire & income for better quality alcohol.

gentrification of moonshine is probably too technical for you.
that occurred roughly around 1850 to 1900 prior to the christian extremists gaining control and installing the prohibition days after they watched the opium wars between Britain and china.
American society feared equal rights being installed and so reacted to try and grab at control by installing fascist communist laws.
the USA feared being enslaved by a foreign country using drugs
so reacted
they have never really moved on from that and still suffer today from terrible drug addiction and prohibition ideologies mixed together in a large scale failing social experiment for the last 80 years or soo

Asia has a similar problem they have yet to evolve past
recreational drug use
tourism
religious extremism
death penaltys
no health care system
child brides
etc etc
its all connected

you could define stronger alcohol as automation of manual labour
as slaves were used
that gave distillers more free time and free income to invest
now everyone wants a taxi with no driver in it that drives its self by a computer and that cant be hacked and crashed into a telephone pole & explode in flames
but they forgot people need a job to earn money to afford to pay for the taxi

you want safe strong alcohol with no poisons in it ?
you want a gun ?
you want a driverless car/taxi ?
you want to sky dive ?
Fly in a passenger plane ?
(you want morals and regulation or you want self accountability?)
ok but the risk is you might die if it goes wrong(free will your choice)
liberty and freedom

 

One is considered an adult in the U.S. at 18 as well. Some local jurisdictions may consider the age to smoke or drink 21, for others it's 18. The age of consent is 18. You can sign contracts and marry at 18.

 

Yes, my experience has told me that.

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Same here. I drink water while I'm sipping a glass of wine for example, and I don't feel nearly as fatigued or dehydrated the next day. Wine does give me a headache though, possibly due to the tannins.

Interestingly, Italians allow their children a glass of wine with meals, and that likely builds a tolerance, too.

 

Just in the movies.

That was its original purpose. Contaminated water was a big cause of death a few centuries back, and even weak beer(or weak wine) contained enough alcohol to kill off pathogens. Thus it was considered safe to drink.

That's one of the hidden meanings in the "turning water into wine" anecdote in the Biblical story about the Marriage at Cana. By the standards of the time, Jesus was turning something dangerous (water) into something pure and safe (wine.)

 

I've given my son a small glass on special occasions since he was 14. My grandfather did the same for me, as did my parents. The idea is to build a healthy habit: moderation and with meals, as opposed to the binge culture of the Anglo-Saxons and the North. Opinions differ as to whether or not it works, but I feel it is a piece of civilised European culture to be learnt - apart from being a nice experience. My son is proud of his French heritage, so I'm hoping it will stick, as a little mark of distinctiveness that he values.

 

Can wine prolong your life?

 

my life or your life ?

 

They wouldn't drink spirits to quench thirst. Spirits are for things like taking the edge of your feelings, or for moving quickly along the merry/tipsy/drunk/pissed/unconscious axis.

Yes, it can quench thirst. Not as well as water, but it's not bad.

Depends how much you drink, and what your tolerance is. If you are a heavy drinker then a single drink probably won't even be noticed. If you've never drunk before then a single drink could make you feel very drunk indeed. But there are other factors such as your biology.

There are reports of health benefits of wine consumption if done in moderation. e.g. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/benefits-of-wine
The amount I drink of it, though, either I'm going to live for a very long time, or the health benefits are quickly overtaken by the negative effects the more that is drunk.

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A diabetes patient can drink beer or not?