[MR] Booze in Period / Now (Was wow.... just wow)

[Dexter Guptill]

Forwarding, I forgot to hit "Reply to All" the first time:

Back about 22-1/2 years ago, there was an article in TI on the subject
of being an alcoholic (as in, "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk.
Alcoholics go to meetings.") in the SCA.  It discussed modern AA-type
issues in an SCA context, stuff like "you really don't want to take a
swig out of that tankard someone handed you".  At any rate, the final
paragraph was telling:

 "Bringing this back to a medieval context, one may ask what
alcoholics did in the Middle Ages. My Lords and Ladies, they died."

Note that the number of alcoholics in a population (VERY rough guess,
here) seems to be inversely proportional to that population's
familiarity with alcohol.  The most extreme case is Native Americans,
who didn't get much of the stuff until Europeans showed up.   Methinks
that Father Darwin may have had a hand in this.

Small beer is barely alcoholic, but still has enough yeast growth to
compete with pathogenic bacteria.  Even mixing a bit of wine in with
your water is going to help, somewhat, with decontaminating the water.
 To some extent, drinking brewed beverages was a safety precaution.

>>>>>> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 9:11 AM, Bambi TBNL
<hippy_dippy_dancer at yahoo.com> wrote:
> What did their livers look like?..... Sigh.....
>  what was the average life expectancy?..... Silly mortal!                                                 -

Erich von Kleinfeld, mka

-- 
Dex
http://members.cox.net/dguptill

"Rule 37: There is no overkill. There is only 'Open Fire', and 'I need
to reload'. " http://www.schlockmercenary.com