Home > Relish Austin > Archives > 2008 > August > 08
Friday, August 8, 2008
Austin named hardest-drinking city in U.S
Feeling tipsy?
You’re not alone, according to Forbes magazine, which this week said that Austin might be the hardest-drinking city in America.
Forbes, which releases similar rankings several times a year, used data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey to pinpoint Austin residents’ affinity for alcohol. The CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey last year found that 61.5 percent of residents said they had at least one drink in the past 30 days.
But it was the number of drinks per day that put Austin at the top of — or perhaps the bottom of — the bar. Nearly nine percent of people surveyed said they had at least one drink per day for women, two for men.
Milwaukee, Wis., came in at No. 2, followed by San Francisco, Providence, R.I., and Chicago.
The University of Texas, like most major universities in the U.S., has been battling the binge drinking image for decades. Forbes named it the No. 1 party school in 2006.
“I would hope that people would look at the methods of how these rankings are made,” said Sandi Cleveland, manager at the Health Promotion and Resource Center, which is part of the University Health Services. “It’s important for people to understand that UT students make up 5 percent of Austin’s population when they are all here.”
UT participates in a survey similar to the one conducted by the CDC in which students are asked about their drinking habits. About 72 percent said they had had an alcoholic drink in the past 30 days, Cleveland said. Thirty-four percent said they had participated in binge drinking, which means drinking more than five alcoholic drinks on one occasion, but the average number of drinks consumed was fewer than four. In the CDC survey, about 20 percent of adults in Austin said they have had five drinks on one occasion.
“We work with freshmen at orientation to talk about how students can avoid dangers of alcohol abuse, how to recognize alcohol poisoning,” she said. Cleveland said that 35 percent of first-year students don’t drink any alcohol.
Photos: Forbes’ hardest-drinking cities
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Beer/Wine/Spirits, Drinks, Food in the news
Deb O’Keefe: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
Deb now pulls the early shift on “The Morning X with Jason and Deb,” where she frequently brings up topics related to food, including the importance of eating locally and even a recent up-close encounter with a salmonella-like illness.
I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t the buttered Marmite. :)
What three things are always in your fridge?
1. Free range, veggie fed brown eggs for my dog Blue’s dinner. He gets one everyday!
2. Red Bull. I can’t live without it! I just get up way too early. I’ve cut back to one a day though… :-)
3. Carrots. They are nice and healthy, go with everything and best of
all, take ages to go off…
What’s your favorite condiment? We have a few things in the UK that you can’t get here (as you can see by the weird things in my fridge) and one of them is my beloved Heinz Salad Cream. It goes with everything. I’m also a really big Heinz Tomato Ketchup fan.
It’s 4 a.m. You either just got home from a crazy night out or are just getting up for the morning show. What do you put together to satisfy your grumbling stomach? I will immediately feel better if there’s a couple of pieces of hot, buttered Marmite on toast in front of me. Marmite is this sandwich spread from the UK. I grew up on it and get depressed when I run out. My family were just here visiting and brought me a supply to last at least 6 months… However, it’s not for everyone. You either loveMarmite or you hate it. Seriously.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: What's in Your Fridge Friday
