The Royal College of Physicians has recently recommended a change to the, already arbitrary, guidelines on safe alcohol consumption, and have stated that we should all have three alcohol free days a week. Presumably they want us all to drink water of all things.
In the past everyone, including children, drank nothing but beer, as the water was too contaminated and unhealthy to drink, but if you think that this is the distant past then think again.
A “Which” report in the 1980s revealed that all the bottled waters then on the market in the UK, except one, had levels of bacteria far in excess of the statutory limit for tap water. Still today there is no limit for bacteria in bottled water. And if you think tap water is clean and wholesome read this article.
As it says on the NHS website linked to above, "Your health, your choices" Thanks very much, I will have another beer.
To be fair, a lot of the consumption in the:
ReplyDelete"Water?! Art thou mad? Verily, pass me another flagon of beer"
- days might have been "small beers" with relatively low alcohol contents.
I remember being very impressed when I went to an 'historical reenactment' day many years ago at Apsley House, and they showed us the house accounts indicating how much payment in kind (in food and drink) the servants got. It was all meticulously itemized in things like pints of small beer per day/week, pints of strong ale ditto, bread, cheese etc etc.
Adnams brewery is planning to start small beer production once more: http://adnams.co.uk/beer/brewing/a-small-beer-anyone
ReplyDeleteSmall beer was usually about 2% in alcohol, so weaker, but not insignificant. Until the rise of industrial brewing in the 18th Century, brewing was a regular household task, and small beer production a sensible economic use of the malt.
Small beer didn't keep well, so the gallon of beer issued to sailors of Nelsons fleet, or equivalent in rum had quite a decent alcohol content.
We have a very boozy past!