Drinking Too Much? Blame Your Glass 115
sciencehabit writes "Before you down that pint, check the shape of your glass—you might be drinking more beer than you realize. According to a new study of British beer drinkers, an optical illusion caused by the shape of a curved glass can dramatically increase the speed at which we swill. The researchers recruited 160 Brits, and asked them to watch a nature documentary while they drank beer from straight or curved glasses. The group drinking a full glass of lager out of curved flute glasses drank significantly faster than the other group--possibly because the curved glasses impaired their ability to pace themselves while drinking."
Simple solution (Score:2)
Drink through a straw.
Re: (Score:1)
Curved or straight?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I always suspected... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If she's sleeping on your couch I would hazard a guess and say she's not your girlfriend.
Re:I always suspected... (Score:4, Funny)
Damn. Then who is that woman on my couch ?
Your mom. And it's her couch, not yours.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So researchers have finally found out... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
amen!
Re: (Score:2)
Next research mission; Do those free peanuts and pretzels make you thirsty for more beer, too?
Where can I volunteer for that experiment?
More serious study needed (Score:4, Funny)
Just one small study with 160 people cannot be trusted. I feel it my duty to help out with the research, I think that this merits a lot of experimental evidence to ascertain the veracity of this important question. I shall be off to the pub to do repeated tests using different glasses - this evening, straight after the new Dr Who has aired.
And? (Score:2)
Does this make any real difference whatsoever? Surely people are still capable of counting the number of glasses they drink, or is drinking one pint too quickly "binge drinking" now?
Re: (Score:3)
Assuming the drinker in question limits their intake by units, this is true.
But most people limit their intake by a time based function: let's have another while we are here!
[units] = [time] * [consumption]
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
How about the center of gravity? (Score:1)
Holding a fluted glass, you're more likely to drink faster off the top just to make it easier to hold w/o spilling. It's a less convenient form factor compared to a straight mug.
People try to avoid spillage as it invites accusations of tipsiness or worse.
Absolute worse glassware for over drinking (Score:5, Funny)
The Mobius Mug and the Escher Pint are the worst causes of hangovers, but you don't see them at most bars because the profit margins suck.
Re: (Score:1)
http://www.kleinbottle.com/drinking_mug_klein_bottle.htm [kleinbottle.com]
They obviously don't know about... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
but if you drink slower. you have to order less to cover the evening.
Using the wrong units (Score:4, Interesting)
From the article (i know, what am I doing reading that...)
"They assigned each group to drink either about 177 milliliters or about 354 milliliters of lager or soft drink from straight or curved glasses."
No they didn't! It's a British report and beer sure as hell is not measured in ml!
Still, the actual measurements used (6 fl oz and 12 fl oz) still seem to be an odd choice to me. Have to wonder why they didn't use 10 fl oz (a half) and 20 fl oz (a pint) to more accurately represent the normal quantities of beer drinking.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0043007 [plosone.org]
Re: (Score:1)
As in any international publication, the volume must be expressed in the international system of Units (SI, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units).
It's actually you who are still using the old, unnecessary complex and arbitrary imperial system. Sorry.
Re: (Score:2)
Because a pint, or a half, would be a whole glass, and the aim is to study the ability of the drinker to estimate volume based on the glass shape. It's too easy to estimate the volume when you ask them for a volume that's a standard glass size.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
UK (imperial) pints aren't the same size as US liquid pints: UK pint is 568mL, US pint is 473mL. In other words, a UK pint is 19.2 US fl oz.
And an imperial fluid ounce is a 20th of an imperial pint, but a US fluid ounce is a 16th of a US pint.
Draught beer can only be sold in pints or halves in the UK, by law.
From Observation... (Score:3, Interesting)
I had a major "aha!" moment after reading this. It is absolutely true in my experience, oddly enough. I get a pint in one of those tall thin glasses and it goes down *fast*. Otheriwse I tend to be more of a sipper. I guess I just figured that might be why they serve beer in those at some of the "chain-ier" restaurants out there. They already know this information, perhaps?
The beer shoots down the into the mouth faster, I think, less feeling against the skin above the lip (what's the term for that?), so maybe you don't get that "I have to wipe my face off" feeling, and just keep drinking?
The feeling against the lips/mouth is different between glasses, and I'd be interested to get more data about the cognitive EXPERIENCE of the beer and probably other factors... I posit that this IS an ok place for me to totally geek out on thinking I'd love to conduct an experiment on this sort of thing and learn a lot more details than this research may have accounted for.
Re: (Score:2)
Regular or Light? Does it matter? (Score:2)
i wonder if they tracked the type of beer as a variable.
Count (Score:2)
The shape of the glass doesn't matter if you count how many drinks you have had.
Re: (Score:1)
Neither does the size, if memory serves me right.
If.
The problem with beer glasses (Score:2)
Information request (Score:3)
half yard of ale (Score:3)
Why are they looking at their glass? (Score:1)
mindless eating (Score:2)
If this kind of research is interesting to you, check out http://mindlesseating.org/ [mindlesseating.org] ... it's not a diet book, but I definitely lost a lot of weight after I read it.
"Drinking too much? Blame your glass" (Score:1)
Personally (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I find beer impairs my ability to pace myself. YMMV.
Bottle Baby (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think so.... (Score:1)
I am a regular social drinker, and I have some fair doubts about this study.
I have tried many different beers in their trademark glasses. But regardless the glass, I always stop at 4 (British) pints of regular beer (5% alcohol level) , as that's the absolute limit of liquids I can hold in my body cage.
My answer for "why some people drink too much?".. I think they are genetically able to process alcohol much faster. Also, the colder climate can make you drink slightly more. Or it could be just that, beer is
Wrong terminology (Score:2)
In the UK, lager is not beer. Beer is never served in lager glasses.
My personal favorite beer glass (Score:2)
has always been a schooner. But it's been years since I've seen a bar that has one. (I have 3 at home; 2 glass, 1 wood.)
Second favorite container is the liter mug, followed by the half-liter.
After that I really don't care. I'll drink out of a jelly jar if that's all you've got.
But never plastic. Lord no, never plastic.
Re: (Score:2)
http://www.kleinbottle.com/drinking_mug_klein_bottle.htm [kleinbottle.com]
These can make you drink to excess too.
aka a Klein Stein
Re: (Score:1)
But never plastic. Lord no, never plastic.
They are acceptable on carnival day and in the mosh pit.
Way to avoid responsibility. (Score:3)
If I drink too much, it's my fault. Not my glass, not the bartenders, not whom I'm with. My fault. I'm the idiot who didn't stop drinking.
Come on peeps, take responsibility for your actions. Seriously, the glasses fault that we might drink too much? What's next, it's our shoes fault when we speed?
FTFY (Score:2)
s/glass/users/
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I don't know. I am older yet and do not drink but I do remember the fun that I've had. And very little of it has resulted in throwing up, acting like an inebriated asshole or regretting the use of alcohol diminished reasoning faculties.
Re: (Score:1)
I personally have never experienced all that bad stuff, and I don't intend to. I don't know why people repeatedly do that to themselves. Doing it once because you're ignorant is not so bad, but to do it more than once or twice seems retarded
Re: (Score:1)
Beer doesn't, but if I wanted something bitter, I'd go slap down on a 6 pack of sanbitter.
Perhaps I'm off topic now, but there are many, many beers that aren't bitter. I'm not a huge bitter beer drinker, so I avoid IPAs and anything else that's high on hops. A well-done hefeweizen, brown/red ale, and some pale/blonde ales are really fantastic beverages without the overpowering bitterness. Also, avoid anything cheap. Those are almost always bitter and/or urine flavored.
Anyhoo, I respect your decision not to drink; I just wanted to point this out in case you haven't experienced a beer that sui
Re: (Score:2)
Depending on what it is you're eating and drinking, food and alcoholic beverages can go very well together.
Re: (Score:2)
Nope.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Am I the only one who finds it odd that AC's are all posting thoughtful comments, yet a signed-in Slashdot user is the one being an asshole?
Re: (Score:2)
I didn't drink until I was in my thirties, and I'm with you. It has several distinct advantages:
1. You are still invited along to events. (They do need a designated driver, after all.)
2. If you do come to drinking later in life, when you have some disposable income, you will probably never develop a taste for megaswill-in-a-can or blended whisky. Yes, this is an advantage. If it helps, recall that Starbucks is for people who like the effect that coffee has on them, but don't actually like coffee.
3. You can
Re: (Score:2)
I'm 27 and don't drink at all.
You are "The Most Boring Man in the World".
No, he's just very dry.
Re: (Score:1)
No alcohol doesn't mean 'boring'. (Score:3)
You are "The Most Boring Man in the World".
I don't drink alcohol and don't make a religion of it. I have plenty of friends who enjoy a beer or two or a bottle of whine, but none of them think im boring because I don't drink alcohol.
I also meet quite a few people - mostly men - who think what you think and have thought that since their late teens. Most of them have a beerbelly, a slow brain and can't losen up around women. Sad sight. I on the other hand get my age mistaken for early to mid 30ies (kind of a b
Re: (Score:1)
And yet, in the end you'll die just like the rest of us.
Re: (Score:2)
According to religionists, isnt death only the beginning?
Were here on Earth for what, 80 odd years?
How does 80 years on earth compare to 80,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 x10^800000000000000000000000000000 years in [insert heaven or hell of choice here]? ( which is not even a tiny insignificant fraction of eternity BTW )
Once we die, the real fun begins.
Apparently.
So drink up...or not, it makes no difference.
Apparently.
Re: (Score:1)
Aw, well, I'll just go on enjoying myself, my highscores with not-so-naive-anymore women and some neat dancing and social skills and the company that comes with them, all of which would actually easyly be spoiled by to much alcohol, but not at all but completely avoiding it.
Dude, you're 42. You're supposed to be married with a 13 and 10 year old at this point...
Maybe your social skills aren't as amazing as you think?
Re: (Score:1)
A "beerbelly" has nothing to do with beer, it's caused by other factors.
Re: (Score:1)
Anyway, she says that I'm still an alcoholic even though I don't drink because most my family is a bunch of alcoholics. Is this logical or do I need to smack her upside the head?
Re: (Score:1)
Re:No alcohol doesn't mean 'boring'. (Score:5, Insightful)
You conflate a lot of things together with your abstinence from drinking. You friends with beer bellies probably drink too heavily and don't exercise or eat properly. I too look quite a bit younger than my age, I can still solve hard problems, and enjoy learning, but guess what? I drink.
There is a nice middle area between binge drinking and being a teetotaler. It's what most people do -- have a drink now and then with friends, enjoy a good pint or glass of wine or whiskey, and enjoy themselves. I don't care whether you drink or not, and I don't think you are 'boring' for having that lifestyle, but don't try to say that drinking at all will result in horrible outcomes for your life.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe not, but if people cannot enjoy themselves without being drunk - and exactly this is implied by quite a lot of posts here - then their outcomes are indeed horrible.
Re: (Score:2)
Well yes, I'd agree with that. I think people that can only find solace/happiness in an altered state are usually using alcohol/drugs/whatever as escapism for some aspect of their life they hate. But people would often rather do that than make hard decisions in order to alter the state of their real life.
Re: (Score:2)
Drinking alcohol does not need to be a binary "nothing" or "passed out in a pool of your own puke"
Moderation is key, take the middle path. You get to enjoy a drink, but dont ever have to worry about your drinking, and what it is doing to you.
Re: (Score:2)
>
Pah. I'm 42, and only 2 nights back I was placed in the mid-to-late 20s.
Yet I drink like a fish (though rarely get drunk, I just drink a fair amount almost daily), so don't blame the alcohol
Re: (Score:2)
Research suggests you are not tall and slightly curvy, then. Didn't you RTFH?
Re: (Score:2)
I'm 27 and don't drink at all.
I'm also 27 and recently stopped drinking both booze and caffeine. They just make my head fuzzy these days and I thought I'd experiment with a life where I use no substances. Recommended.