Saturday 21 January 2006

You are what you drink

This piece on the BBC site caught my eye. It's drawn from research findings (known as "basket analysis" in the retail trade) which extrapolates diet information and relates it to what alcohol people purchase. According to these data wine drinkers eat healthier food than beer drinkers. One surprising factoid:
An earlier Californian study suggested that those who drank beer tended to be less-educated men who with a higher alcohol intake.
I've still to find any research regarding the academic status of those who don't drink or if anything can be inferred from whether people drink lager rather than Guinness (though I have my own thoughts). Overall, and without seeing the research, I think this is probably deeply flawed as it seems to make some big assumptions - does everyone buy everything they consume in the supermarkets sampled? Is everything we put in our basket just for us? I buy frozen chips but rarely eat them - they are here for when my children stay. I also buy wine and beer - perhaps it reflects my less-educated days as well as my reasonably normal days.

Go and check it out and be careful what you buy!

6 careful considerations:

kat said...

I think the people who drink Guinness are probably the most sensible people. It's good for you or so they say.

bluefluff said...

I always remember mum thrusting Guinness on me just after I'd had my first baby, on the basis that "it builds you up". Since I eventually went on to produce four healthy upstanding offspring, she can't have been far wrong :-)

Nog - I'm sure there's something in the Californian study, in that beer is cheaper than most wine & spirits, so it's hardly surprising that beer is the choice of lower socio-economic groups (or "the poor" as we call them in English)& the correlation between educational levels & socio-economic satus is clear enough.
But the supermarket research is crap, I agree. I would appear to be regular consumers of very expensive malt whisky, for example, but in fact I never touch the stuff - just buy it for my elderly father!

kat said...

Bluefluff - It was Guinness that got me pregnant. :-)

I don't drink a lot of it now - Too many calories and carbs in it. Such a shame.

Nogbad said...

Kat - you make this sound like a step away from immaculate conception! I've enjoyed Guinness for years and it's not got me pregnant! :-)

Anonymous said...

I think the people who drink Guinness are probably the most sensible people. It's good for you or so they say.

Bluefluff - It was Guinness that got me pregnant. :-)

Slight contradiction here!

I've enjoyed Guinness for years and it's not got me pregnant! :-)

Just looking pregnant? ;-) Nog, thank you thank you for not using the word 'data' as a singular. You are obviously a wine drinker!

vw:tqdlyme

almost reads Tiddly me. How appropriate.

Nogbad said...

Anna! So glad that you are back online! I understood that it wasn't until no 17 that you realsed what caused it! :-)