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Americans Are Drinking As Much Alcohol Now As In Civil War Days
Americans Are Reportedly Drinking As Much Alcohol Now As In Civil War Days
Americans are drinking alcohol at levels reminiscent of the Civil War era, a new report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has found.
Over the course of 2021, the average American consumed 2.51 gallons of ethanol — the alcohol found in wine, beer and spirits — compared with 2.53 gallons in 1860, the brink of the Civil War.
“During stressful times, people tend to drink more,” Hilary Sheinbaum, author of “The Dry Challenge,” told The Post on Wednesday. “People want to turn to a vice to relax them.”
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The NIAAA defines a “standard drink” as 0.6 fluid ounces of ethanol, meaning that Americans 14 and older are consuming about 535.5 standard drinks on average in a year. Alcohol consumption reached a national high in 1980, with Americans drinking an average of 2.8 gallons.
2021 saw the largest two-year increase since 1969 — 5.5% — and marked a 60% increase in liquor consumption compared to the mid-1990s. Regionally, alcohol consumption increased by 5.4% in the Northeast, 3.4% in the South, 2.3% in the West and 1.6% in the Midwest between 2020 and 2021.
Sheinbaum explained to The Post that “these days, alcohol is so prevalent in everything we do and more accessible than ever.” “It’s readily available in a handheld cocktail form or sold at the gas station,” she noted.
Canned alcoholic beverages, for example, have become more popular, with ready-to-drink cocktails (commonly called RTDs) seeing a 127% growth in sales over the past two years, according to the alcohol home-delivery service Drizly. As many Americans struggle to manage their drinking, an increasing number of millennials and Gen Zers are exploring sobriety with their health in mind
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