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Drinking Too Much? Blame Your Glass
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."
...what the pub and bar industry has known for 200 years. Attaboy, researchers! Next research mission; Do those free peanuts and pretzels make you thirsty for more beer, too?
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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.
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.
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
-1 troll is not supposed to be used simply because you don't agree
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.
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Damn. Then who is that woman on my couch ?
Your mom. And it's her couch, not yours.
Proud member of the Ferengi Socialist Party.
Personally I find beer impairs my ability to pace myself. YMMV.
They will be able to count. I doubt that they will actually do so.
What people do is go out and then go home at a certain time.
Say that in that time you have 5 pints out of pint glasses, but because you now drink out of a straight glass, you will have only 4. That is 20% less consumption.
No matter what company you are working for, 20% less sales is a LOT.
Or look at it the other way around. Imagine that you are a company that sells beer in straight glasses. Going to curved ones can increase your sales by 25%.
In Belgium Stella Artois is chaging the Stella straight glasses for curved ones. They do not change the beer. They do it purely out of marketing reasons. Make the beer classier and not compete with their other standard beer Jupiller. They estimated that the whole image change will take about 10 years. Turn it into a classier beer. And all this without changing the taste of it.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
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.