American's Alcohol Consumption is Decreasing

Are you drinking more or less as you get older? A new study reports that as American generations are getting older, they are drinking less. As clothes trends change, trends also seem to change in alcoholic beverage preference. It also seems that Americans are growing to prefer wine over beer as their adult beverage of preference.

During the study, researchers from Boston University Medical Center determined that adults are drinking less as they age. The study was based on responses of over 8,000 participants who completed surveys, to help understand participants drinking habits, during the Framingham Heart Study from 1948 to 2003. Participants of the study were mainly from the white middle-class community of Framingham, Massachusetts.

Overall, the study determined that Americans are drinking less these days than ever. The researchers are not sure the reason for the decline, but some people feel it could be contributed to the strict enforcement of the no drinking and driving laws, better educated adults, or it could be the emphasis many adults now place on their health and eating habits. Dr. R. Curtis Ellison, with the Boston University School of Medicine, stated, "the level of education improved throughout the study, and more-educated people tend to drink less, so this may be one reason."

As we go through adulthood, it seems there are several stages, such as college days and the single life, to marriage, to having a family, to being an empty nester, to learning to deal with aging problems. As we go through these changes our ways of life seem to evolve or adapt to the situation. As generations grow older many habits may change. Through the study, researchers found that as generations grew older, they were drinking less than the previous generation. For instance, adults during the '50s and '60s drank around 33 percent more than adults at the same age in the '70s up to 2004.

Even though alcohol consumption has declined, the risk of dependency on alcohol did not decrease, the study determined. However, the study found that 50 percent of American adult men and 60 percent of adult women in their eighties stated they do not drink any alcohol. There's been a gradual decrease in the average amount of alcohol people drink. For instance, alcohol consumption among men has gone from about two-and-a-half drinks a day to one-and-a-half drinks a day, Ellison said.

Researchers are not sure what has lead to the decrease in drinking alcohol, but it seems to be a good trend. Ellison stated, "The data are very clear that light to moderate drinking, without binge drinking, is generally good for health, whereas a larger amount of binge drinking is bad. It looks like, in this population, it's going in the right direction."