Thirty Percent Of Americans Drink Once A Week

A Harris Poll conducted in March of this year concluded that Three in Ten Americans Drink Alcohol at Least Once a Week. The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive, surveyed 2,379 adults between March 7 and 14, 2011. Not surprisingly, beer continues to be the most popular alcoholic beverage, followed by American wine and vodka. And men still drink beer more than women “75% vs. 50%.”

Here are some other findings from the poll:

Question 1: “How often do you drink alcohol, including beer or wine?”

Question 2: “How often do you drink alcohol, including beer or wine?”

Question 3: “Which alcoholic beverages do you personally drink either at home or away from home? If you have mixed drinks, such as sours or martinis, please indicate the type of liquor they contain.”

Question 4: “Although you may drink several types of alcoholic beverages, which one type would you say you drink most often?”

Naturally, I have a couple of quibbles:

1. Why did they separate out domestic and foreign wine, but not domestic and foreign beer?
2. “It’s probably not surprising that men and women have different drinking preferences.” Maybe, but isn’t this something of a self-perpetuating prophecy? I know plenty of women who love beer and find wine too sweet. I also know women who claim to find beer too bitter but drink their weight in coffee. I can’t help but wonder if we keep reinforcing this by asking the question, and people respond with the answer they think is the case, which ends up making it real when maybe it’s not.
3. “According to many doctors and medical studies, a glass of wine is good for one’s health. And even beyond wine, a drink, as long as it’s in moderation, is something that people shouldn’t be afraid of having.” Goddammit, why does this one persist, that “wine” is good for you but the rest are not? By omission, the statement implies that beer and other alcohol is not “good for one’s health” or at a minimum not “as” good which infuriates me. And adding the qualifying statement that “beyond wine” it’s okay to drink the other alcoholic drinks “as long as it’s in moderation” likewise implies that it’s healthful to drink as much wine as you like. How can they be so detail-oriented about the statistics involved in polling, and so ignorant in their statements of analysis? Sheesh.